


Wait for it

by TheBlueSheep



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: BAMF Tsuna, Blood and Violence, Drama, Friendship, Gen, Kidnapping, Kinda, Major Character Injury, No Romance, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tsuna-Centric, but still the same old tsuna, descriptions of torture, tsuna is three ounces of whoop-ass
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-02-16 07:06:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13049019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBlueSheep/pseuds/TheBlueSheep
Summary: “Mochida wants to protest because there is no way the tiny and frail Dame-Tsuna, drugged with some unknown substance and staggering on his feet, could face three guns and a sword and live to tell the tale...”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> No pairings and no Mochida bashing in this story.  
> Disclaimer: no
> 
> Cover by [nerdismysafeplace-01](https://nerdismysafespace-01.tumblr.com/) Thank you so much for the cover!

“Hey, hey, mister? You wanna buy this? C’mon mister, I’ll make a great deal for you.”

Tsuna stops and looks at the little girl. She can’t be older than seven. Her hair is matted and clothes dirty, the oversized jacket she’s wearing definitely not enough to keep her warm. Clinging to her back is a smaller child, just as dirty, but looking remarkably warmer in a worn coat.

The girl is holding a bracelet in her small crummy hands. The design is simple and feminine with two thin silver wines looping each other and seven colourful stones embedded into the metal in a seemingly random manner. The morning sun makes them glimmer and glisten like a rainbow.

Tsuna catches a glimpse of a similar bracelet peeking out from the cuff of the girl’s oversized jacket. He doesn’t need his intuition telling him they were stolen.

“Mister? I know you want it so I’ll give it to you cheap. You need to buy _p-presents_ for this _Christmas_ thing, right?” she stumbles over the unfamiliar words, likely not knowing what exactly they mean, but there’s a dull hopeful glow in her eyes.

Tsuna doesn’t hesitate. It takes him a moment to come up with a plan, then he squats down to the girl’s eye-level, leaning the plastic bag with groceries on the snowy street.

“I’d love to buy it!” he says with a warm smile, careful not to scare the children. “How much is it?”

“Seventy thousand,” the girl chirps immediately and Tsuna’s suddenly very glad Gokudera’s not with him. Stray kid or not, his forever loyal right hand does not take well to people trying to hassle the Vongola heir. Tsuna, however, doesn’t falter. The kid is obviously not very familiar with money issues or she wouldn’t have asked for such an outrageous sum. She probably hasn’t been on the streets for too long.

He takes out his wallet and feigns counting his money, then turns back to the child with a regretful smile.

“Sorry, little merchant, I don’t have that much cash on me. I don’t suppose you take cards?”

The kid hesitates, then bites her lip as she shakes her head.

“I see. That’s a problem. I really do want it.” He pretends to think for a moment with a finger on his lips and just before the kid can offer her own solution, he says, “Oh, I know! If you don’t mind walking with me, my house is a few blocks that way. I can get you the money.”

He looks with silent satisfaction as the girl thinks it over, not very subtle with checking Tsuna out from head to toe. At least she knows the dangers of following strangers to their homes. Finally she deems Tsuna as safe, or at least as a naïve idiot, and nods.

Tsuna gives them another bright smile, then turns to walk to his house. He’s met enough slum kids in Italy to know not to look back, and to keep his pace slow. Kids like that are cautious and smart and skittish, and he needs to act like a gullible idiot for them to follow. The moment he’s too eager for them to come along, they’ll flee.

He would feel guilty for dragging Nana into this, but he knows exactly how much his mother loves a full house and taking care of strays. When she sees these kids, dirty and hungry and cold as they are, she’ll drag them into the house by force if necessary, and not let them out of sight until they’re well fed, dressed, and have a place to call home.

And the best part of it all is that Iemitsu has no right to complain because the situation is perfect for the mission Nono assigned for them, too.

Later he’ll contact Hibari to scan Namimori for other homeless children. If there are more than a few, he’ll ask Kyoko and Haru to see if an orphanage or a shelter can be established. Even if he isn’t the head of Vongola yet, there are still things he can do. Especially if it means saving starving children from the streets.

They’ll tackle the heart of the problem as soon as all the children are safe.

-x-

Mochida Kensuke walks the snowy streets of Namimori adjusting the shinai carelessly thrown over his shoulder. He just finished the morning classes in the dojo, and with so many kids losing interest in martial arts lately, he has no afternoon classes scheduled.

It’s a shame, really. Training kids at the dojo had been his dream since he took up kendo classes as a young boy, but with how badly it is going, he will have to find a new job very soon. He’s not at all confident about a job outside of the dojo, but he will have to manage somehow.

He stops abruptly as he passes an alley. At first he doesn’t know what made him stop, but then he hears it again. Someone is yelling angrily a few streets into the mess of small alleys, crisscrossing each other like a nest of hibernating snakes.

He doesn’t hesitate before he ducks in. It might be nothing, just two drunkards fighting, maybe, but he has noticed a sudden influx of homeless children on the streets of Namimori. And while he can’t think of anything to solve the problem, he can at least help the children when one’s in trouble in front of him.

He turns a few corners, following the yelling. Hand on the hilt of his shinai, he rounds some trash cans and yelps as a small figure darts out another alley and slams right into him. He falls on his bottom in surprise. The other person is not so lucky as he makes a few stumbling steps and crashes head first into one of the trash cans, toppling it neatly, and loudly.

Mochida watches with wide eyes as the person rubs his head and moans. There’s no mistaking that disastrous brown hair and small frame. He really looks pretty much the same as in middle school.

“Dame-Tsuna?”

He looks up, still holding his head. “Eh? You are… Mochida-senpai? Why are you here?”

“I should be asking you that. What are you running from..?” He quiets as Dame-Tsuna suddenly straightens and looks around as if expecting someone. His eyes are wide, head cocked, listening to something. “Someone chasing you? Don’t tell me you still get bullied?”

“Um. Kind of, I guess,” he says absently, messing with something on his wrist. Mochida steps closer and sees a silver bracelet. It’s frilly and feminine and has sparkling stones on it and even with the massive two-piece ring on his fingers, the accessory looks weird on him. Dame-Tsuna seems to know that too, as he tries to pull it off. Has been trying to do that for a while, judging by the angry red mark around his wrist.

“Stupid thing won’t come off,” he mutters under his breath. Then he sighs and leaves it alone before checking the streets again. “You should get out of here, senpai. If you leave your shinai and act as if you didn’t see anything, they’ll let you pass, but you need to go _right now._ ”

Mochida doesn’t say anything as he takes a loose stance with his shinai firmly in his hand, ready to attack or parry in whichever direction.

“What are you doing, Mochida-senpai? You need to get out of here.”

“Shut up! I read the paper in the mornings. Reading about someone I know found beaten to death in a pile of trash would ruin the taste of my coffee. Besides, whoever those bullies are, they’re no match for me.”

“I’m not joking around, senpai. These guys aren’t your typical bullies. There’s no need for you to get mixed up in this,” Dame-Tsuna sounds a little bit desperate, but his expression is stern and stony. When Mochida doesn’t move, he softens a little. “I’ve been taking self-defence lessons lately. Your coffee will be fine.”

“Haah? You want me to believe those noodle arms of yours can do any damage? You may have won against me once, but I’ve become much stronger-”

He moves so fast Mochida doesn’t even have the time to _blink_ and then he’s shoved against a wall. A gunshot echoes through the alley and Dame-Tsuna is standing where Mochida had been just a few seconds ago.

Two men and a woman step out from around the corner. The men have guns in their hands and the woman has a European sword strapped to her hip and he gulps. She’s really pretty and if the situation wasn’t what it was, he’d probably try to flirt with her.

Dame-Tsuna ignores them completely and instead pulls out a small dart from his arm with a wince and inspects it briefly.

“Uh-oh. This can’t be good.” He throws the dart into a pile of trash and staggers a bit, but stays standing. “Listen carefully, senpai. There’s a sniper on the roof with a tranquilliser gun, but he’s not a very good shot and it takes time for him to aim. Darts aren’t very accurate, either. Just keep low and you’ll be fine. Don’t worry, I can hold them off for a few minutes. Please just run and get help… Hibari-san should be near Namimori Middle. He’ll know what to do.”

He says the last part so quietly Mochida has to strain his ears to hear. He doesn’t like it, though. Dame-Tsuna acting like he knows what he’s doing? Hell no!

“I’m not entrusting my safety to you! _You_ run and get help, and _I’ll_ hold them off.”

Dame-Tsuna just shakes his head.

“I’m running out of time. Probably only have a few minutes before that whatever drug in that dart takes me down.”

Mochida wants to protest because there is no way the tiny and frail Dame-Tsuna, drugged with some unknown substance and staggering on his feet, could face three guns and a sword and live to tell the tale, but the lady with the sword speaks before he can get a word out.

“Honestly,” she says and there’s something akin to awe in her tone, “You should already be out of time by now. That tranquilliser takes an elephant down in less than ten seconds. For you to still be standing… I’ve got no idea who you are, but you’ve got some reaaal nice flames hidden in that small body of yours, kid.”

Mochida blinks confusedly. Flames? He glances around to see if there’s something burning.

Dame-Tsuna doesn’t seem to think it odd.

“This bracelet is why I can’t reach them?” Dame-Tsuna shows his wrist with a vague, tired move. “Is this how you keep tracking me down as well?”

“Bingo! I see you got a bright l’il brain under all that fluffy hair, too. The bracelet has a tracking system that activates when it comes into contact with active flames. It’s how we hunt down the brats who look useless at first, but turn out to be… profitable later on. I don’t know how you got that bracelet, but I’m afraid you’re a bit too old for us. But I’m sure Marco would be absolutely _delighted_ to dissect you.”

The way she says it with a smile so _friendly_ makes Mochida shiver and grasp the hilt of his shinai tighter.

“They’re just innocent children!” Dame-Tsuna snarls, and it would honestly be scary if his words hadn’t slurred together. He brings his hands up, widens and lowers his stance. Mochida isn’t very experienced in hand-to-hand combat, but he recognises a good stance when he sees one. What Dame-Tsuna has here doesn’t look like anything official, more like instinctual, but it’s still good.

The lady draws her sword and the two men aim at them.

Mochida has never had a gun pointed at him before and he’s never fought against a real sword with a shinai. He has no idea what’s going on and everything is honestly kind of terrifying, but Dame-Tsuna is standing in front of him, ready to fight and he looks so fearless even as his feet wobble and words stumble.

Yeah. Even if he had considered running for help before, there was no way he’d leave Tsuna behind now.  

Besides, perhaps, if he waits long enough, he’ll find out if there’s anything solid to that stance other than showing off.

But Tsuna doesn’t share his thoughts.

“Run away, senpai! Run _right now!_ ” he yells and shoots off straight towards the lady and _damn_ he’s fast.

Mochida refuses to fall behind. He’s close enough to see how Tsuna dodges two bullets the men shoot at him and steps right into the range of the lady’s sword. He moves to dodge that as well, but stumbles on uncooperative feet and Mochida is so glad he’s so close. He grabs the idiot by the scruff of his neck and pulls him out of the way as the sword swipes through thin air. He carelessly throws Tsuna behind him and parries another hit, locking metal against bamboo, making sure the narrow blade gets caught near the hilt or it’ll cut right through it.

“Hmph, you’re decent enough,” The lady breaks the lock and steps back.

Mochida can’t hear Tsuna getting up and he peeks over his shoulder to see what’s wrong.

“But so inexperienced,” she says regretfully and it’s the last thing he hears before the world goes dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *70000 yen is about 618 usd or 525 eur
> 
> Yamamoto implies in Future arc that Mochida Kensuke was at least associated to Vongola or even a member, so they must’ve befriended him at some point. The fandom seems to hate him a lot, though, so I'm not sure how this story will appeal to people. And I mean, yeah, Mochida’s an arrogant asshole who tried to cheat in a match where he was overwhelmingly stronger, but he was also like 14 when he appeared in the manga. And I know I was pretty damn stupid when I was 14. Also, I don’t remember him actively trying to bully Tsuna after that match so he must’ve gotten his act together.
> 
> Also, random badass villain ladies with swords. Am I right or am I right?
> 
> Anyway, I’d love to hear your thoughts so please leave a review on your way out!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Um. Soooo I don’t know exactly how this happened, but people say ’fuck’ a lot?? _Not_ in a sexy way.

The world comes back to him in bits and pieces.

Sensation comes first - the icy gravel under his cheek and the beginning frostbite in his bare fingers. There’s something unbearably cold on his right wrist… which are tied together behind his back with a rough rope.

Sound comes next. Someone’s talking and it sounds like… a woman?

And then the memories come flooding back.

He remembers the two men – three, counting the guy on the roof – and the lady with the sword. Someone must’ve knocked him out when he wanted to check on Tsuna.

_Oh, god._

_Tsuna._

Is he dead? He probably is, there is no way Tsuna could stand up to them even if he wasn’t drugged.

Mochida almost groans thinking what an enormous idiot he is. Overconfident in his abilities he ran to help and what happened? A person got killed! What an amazing way to help someone!

His stomach drops like a stone when he thinks about having to confront Tsuna’s mother. What would he even say? That he saw her son dying and couldn’t prevent it because he had fighting skills but no common sense? That he was too stupid to do anything about the small and defenceless Tsuna being killed?

Wait. Would he even get to confront her about it? Wouldn’t they just kill him, too? Mochida has seen their faces. There was no way they would let him live.

He feels someone leaning over him and he forces his breathing to be normal, staying very still.

“Just as I thought. No reaction. This guy doesn’t have active flames. What about the kid? You find out who he is?” It’s the sword lady, probably crouching beside him.

“Nah. No wallet, no phone. Only a pair of mittens and… some kind of medicine? He’s got strong flames, but I don’t… Huh? Hey, wait a minute… This ring has an engraving… Shit. Guys? Guys! I think we captured a Vongola!”

“Eh? Vongola? This pipsqueak? Don’t fuck with me.”

“Just look at the ring!”

Mochida hears Sword Lady leaving his side, her boots crunching against frozen gravel. He opens one eye just a sliver and sees the three of them hovering over Tsuna and… he doesn’t look dead! He’s on the ground and not moving and looks uncomfortable with one arm bent awkwardly under him, but he is definitely not dead and Mochida has to physically force himself to stay still. Trying to either fight or escape would just make things worse. Best he can do in this situation is to gather information. So he listens.

Sword Lady whistles. “Well fuck me with a fucking cheese grater. That looks fucked up enough to be a Vongola ring alright.”

“You know, it’s unsightly for a woman to talk like that.” The man with the red hat says. Mochida decides to call him Red. The other man is turned sideways towards him and he sees a large scar running from his cheekbone to chin. He’ll call that one Scar.

“Yeah? Go cry me a fucking river. Maybe it’s a farce?”

“With that massive amount of flames? No way.”

“Well then what the fuck is a Vongola doing in goddamn Japan?”

“He’s so young, too,” Scar says. “You think he’s one of Decimo’s Guardians?”

“He just as well might be. Damn, I kinda wanna check what his flames are now. I bet he’s a cloud.”

Scar punches Red’s shoulder. “Don’t you know anything? Hibari’s cloud. You know, the ‘Bite you to death’ guy. Shit, if this guy was Hibari, we’d be dead by now – flames or not. This one’s gotta be a storm, you saw how fast he moved.”

“Both of you are idiots,” Sword Lady says, kicking frozen pebbles at them. “He stayed so calm through this whole thing. He’s a rain. No doubt about it.”

“Should we… should we check?”

“Tempting, but… better not. If he really is a Guardian, he’ll burn us like failed fucking gingerbread the moment the bracelet comes off and he’s awake enough to show us his flames. Even if he looks like a wimp, we can’t underestimate a fucking Vongola.”

Scar nods. “I agree. They say all of them are batshit crazy and Decimo himself once blew up half an island and fought and _won_ against the Vindice. He was like _fifteen_ then. And they say that half his Guardians are even worse.”

“Honestly not that hard to believe. You know that Decimo was tutored by fucking _Reborn_ himself? I bet he had his tiny baby fingers in with all the Guardians’ training, though.”

“Fucking Reborn.”

“Yeah. Fuck Reborn.”

“So what do we do with him?” Red asks. “Kill him? Grab him? Just leave him?”

“I’d rather just leave him here. We don’t get paid enough to deal with fucking Vongola. Or Reborn. Or Hibari. But I’ll call Boss first, see if he wants to give us a raise.”

Sword Lady steps away, messing with her phone. Red starts tying Tsuna’s wrists together while Scar comes to check him. Mochida knows he’s busted the moment he grins so he doesn’t try to hide.

“Oh, good, you’re awake. Was worried there for a moment that we caused you permanent brain damage. That’d be shitty. For you, I mean.”

Mochida just glares.

“Hey, the kid called you senpai. You Vongola too?” Scar presses his boot against Mochida’s head, pushing his cheek hard against the ground. “Hey, answer me.”

“I don’t even know what that is,” he spits out reluctantly. They’d mentioned Hibari like they were afraid of him. Maybe he could use that. “Don’t you know that if you mess with Namimori, you mess with Hibari?”

“You’re so full of shit. You say you don’t know Vongola, but you sure know a lot about Hibari,” he says.

“ _Everyone_ knows Hibari in Namimori, idiot. Hard not to know him when he practically rules the town.” He nods towards Tsuna. “Worse, that guy is his friend. You hurt him and you’re _dead_.”

“That guy’s a friend of Hibari’s, you say? Damn, so he really is a Vongola. Thanks for confirming at least that for me. Man though, should’ve known already that the cute ones are always traps.”

Scar looks like he wants to ask more, but Sword Lady comes back then.

“So Boss said to take him. He wants to interrogate him, find out what’s Vongola doing in Japan and if they’re gonna hinder with our business.”

“That’s dumb,” Red says.

“Yep. But, well, he promised a bonus and it’s not like we follow him for his academic achievements, right?”

A pebble hits the ground and they look up to the roof where the fourth guy is. He signals something with one hand, then disappears.

“Someone’s coming. Let’s go.”

“What about this one? He says he’s not Vongola.” Scar kicks his side not very hard. It still hurts.

“I don’t care. We’ll take him too. Just because he hasn’t activated his flames doesn’t mean he’s not associated to Vongola. Maybe he’s an accountant or some shit, I don’t know.”

Mochida is ushered up with a gun to the back of his neck and Red throws Tsuna over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. The alley is as abandoned as it ever was in less than a minute.

-x-

Mochida isn’t sure how much time has passed, but it must be well over an hour as the little patch of sky he can see from the barred window begins to darken.

During that time he has been stuffed to the back of a van with no windows, blindfolded, shoved and pushed around, unkindly led to a room, tied to an unbelievably uncomfortable metal chair, and told that his host will be with him shortly. Then they left him alone.

Well, not completely alone.

Tsuna is tied up on a similar chair a few meters away. He still hasn’t so much as twitched and Mochida sort of envies him. He would like to be unconscious too so he wouldn’t have to deal with all this fear and uncertainty, thank you very much. But since he unfortunately can’t knock himself out, he makes a list instead.

One, they’re in some kind of warehouse. Two, the handcuffs on his wrists go around a metal pipe, so he can’t move his hands much at all. Three, his right arm feels extremely cold for some reason. The cold sensation started from the wrist and has climbed all the way up to his shoulder by now. He can still move his fingers just fine, so it can’t be broken. Four, no one has checked on them. He has heard voices sometimes, some yelling once, but not one person has stepped into the room since Sword Lady pulled the blindfold off, flicked his forehead and left. Five, the chair he’s sitting on is criminally uncomfortable, and the flimsy leather cover is doing nothing to cushion him.

The best plan he’s come up so far with is ‘wait and see’, since he can’t figure out how to deal with the handcuffs. There’s not much he can do unless Tsuna wakes up, anyway.

He glances at Tsuna again and sucks in a breath as he sees his head loll.

“Tsuna!” he dares to call out. He groans and slumps further down on the chair.

“Five more minutes, Reborn. I don’t feel too good…”

“Oi, wake up!”

Tsuna flinches again and finally lifts his head. He blinks dazedly and looks so tired that Mochida has to fight the urge to tell him to go back to sleep. But he holds his tongue behind his teeth, waiting for him to get his bearings back.

“Great. Reborn’s going to _disintegrate_ me,” he finally drawls and his speech still slurs together a little. He straightens up, his movements sluggish. “Are you hurt, senpai?”

“Me? No, I’m fine. But you look like shit.”

“I’m okay, just a little dizzy. It should pass soon enough,” he shrugs. He looks around, eyes oddly unfocused. “Vision’s still a bit blurry, though. Can you see any cameras, senpai?”

Mochida hadn’t thought to check that before. He quickly scans the room, paying special attention to the ceiling. “I don’t see any.”

“Huh… I guess they weren’t prepared for this. Do you know where we are?”

“Looks like some kind of warehouse. There were no windows in the van, so I’m not sure where we are, but the drive wasn’t too long. I think we’re still in Namimori. They just dumped us here and left.”

“They haven’t come back?” Mochida shakes his head and Tsuna hums thoughtfully.

“These guys called you, um… what was it… a Vongola?”

“They did? They must’ve recognised the ring, then. Did they say anything else? Any names?”

“Just Hibari and… a Reborn? You mentioned him too. Who’s Reborn? And what’s Vongola?”

“Hm? Reborn? He’s my tutor. Vongola…” Tsuna bites his lip. “Ah, whatever, to hell with Omertà, I’ll deal with Bermuda later. I hope you won’t need this information, but it’s best to be careful.

“Vongola is a Mafia syndicate based in Italy, known in the underworld as one of the oldest and most powerful Famiglias. They started out as a vigilante group some four hundred years ago, but turned to crime and violence at some point. Timoteo, the Ninth Generation Boss of Vongola is in power right now with his six Guardians, but Tenth Generation is currently being trained to take up their position. That’s as much as most of the underworld knows.”

“And _you_ are a part of that?”

“Haha, well, yeah, in a way. I’m not Mafia, though. No matter what they say. The Tenth Generation is trying to steer the Famiglia back to its vigilante roots. Oh, Hibari-san is a part of Vongola, too, but I wouldn’t mention that in front of him unless you want to lose all your teeth…” He stops. “Senpai? Are you okay?”

Mochida realises he’s been staring for a while now, his mouth hanging open. He shuts it with a click. There’s way too much information to deal with. He more or less gets the whole mafia thing. After all, they had just been kidnapped by gun-wielding, sword-waving criminals who are most likely also yakuza. Or Mafioso. Or something. And it’s not like his father is completely innocent, even if he keeps trying to convince rest of the family that he is, so he has heard of some… things. What he _doesn’t_ get, is how _Dame-Tsuna_ fits into that equation.

“I just… I kind of get Hibari, he has that attitude thing. But I never thought that _you_ of all people would be associated with _organised crime_.”

“It’s not organised crime! Not anymore,” Tsuna protests.

“Whatever. It’s just. You’re small, you know.”

“Eh? I’m not… Okay, that’s fair enough,” he sighs. “In any case, I’m really sorry you got caught up in this mess, but you don’t have to worry. Just wait for it. I’ll definitely get you out of here somehow. My tutor would _destroy_ me if I got this wrong and I do not want to piss him off any more.”

Mochida doesn’t really _want_ to trust him, but he discovers that he does, just a little.

He watches Tsuna shift and stretch on the chair, especially rolling his right shoulder. He looks… calm. In all the years Mochida went to same school with him, he’s never seen Tsuna so calm. He was always skittish and nervous and afraid of everything. Even back when they had that match, Tsuna fled with his tail between his legs when he was first brought into the dojo. But all Mochida had to do was to wait a few minutes and Tsuna came back with firm resolve in his eyes and beat Mochida into the ground.

“How do you do this?” he asks before he can stop himself.

“Do what?”

“How are you so calm?”

Tsuna laughs quietly. “Nah, I’m actually terrified. But can’t really afford to freak out right now, can I? I’ll do that later, when Reborn’s after my head.”

And there it is. There’s that _resolve_ burning bright in his eyes and Mochida can’t look away. Tsuna _will_ get them out.

Suddenly Tsuna perks up and looks intently at the single door in the room.

“Listen carefully, senpai,” Tsuna’s voice is low, but confident. “I forgot my wallet home so there’s a good chance they only know I’m Vongola, but haven’t figured out who I am. If it’s so, then please do not tell them my name. Even if they succumb to torture, _do not tell_. It _will_ be much worse if they know. You _can_ tell them that you know me from middle school, and my name’s, um… Let’s say my name is Irie Shou- No, you just know me as Irie. But if possible, don’t talk at all.”

“What happens if they know already?” Mochida asks, panic making his voice tremble.

“Then… well, I’ll figure something out. I promise that will not let them hurt you, but you have to just… play along, okay?”

Mochida has a bad feeling about those words, but he can’t quite put a finger on it. There’s no time to think, anyway.

The door squeaks as it opens. A tall man steps in. His hair and eyes are dark, skin tanned. He’s playing with a throwing knife with one hand, the other is holding a small plastic card. He doesn’t pay the prisoners any attention until he stops right in front of them. Then he looks up, spares a passing glance at Tsuna and fixes his gaze on Mochida. He looks almost bored.

“Mochida Kensuke,” he says with a deep, smooth voice and not even his high school math teacher had managed to scare him that much just by saying his name. “Twenty years old, lives in Japan, Namimori. All vital information, but rather trivial in this situation, I’m afraid. After all, what this handy little document doesn’t tell me… is that you are a member of the Vongola Famiglia.”

-x-

The alley is deceptively empty.

Sharp eyes note the signs of a struggle on the frozen ground, the trashcan kicked over. There’s a broken shinai near the wall. A colourful dart rests on top of a pile of trash.

A single woollen mitten catches his eye. He picks it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no. Seems they got it a bit wrong. That’s why communication problems are so troublesome.
> 
> Anyway, I’ve always wondered what’d people think of Tsuna based solely on rumours and stories. I mean he literally blew up half the Shimon Island, killed an omnipotent god, won a battle of wills against fucking Reborn and defeated Vindice. That’s pretty damn hardass. Tsuna’s hardass.
> 
> So thank you everyone who has left kudos or bookmarked or subscribed and a very special little thank you to that person who commented! Please do keep on commenting, though, they are the best source of inspiration for me.
> 
> P.S I’m also on Twitter and Tumblr as ThaBlueSheep


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Graphic descriptions of violence and torture. But shouldn’t be too bad. Yet.
> 
> Just a curious little fact: One person guessed correctly who was in that last scene. Well done! (Here, catch some imaginary candy!)

There is something wrong.

Gokudera knows that there is something terribly wrong. He feels it in his bones.

Not in the house, because Tenth’s mother is humming softly while whipping fresh eggs in a bowl and Iemitsu is somewhere in the living room drunk off his ass. He hasn’t been sober since they landed in Japan three days ago. Not that Gokudera cares much about him, but it obviously causes Tenth distress so he’s been hiding sake bottles to at least decrease the speed of Iemitsu’s decent into complete and irreversible idiocy.

Lambo is playing with the two kids Tenth brought home earlier. They are now clean and stuffed full of food and dressed up in what Mama said used to be Tenth’s old clothes. They are still cautious and keep directing wary glances at both Gokudera and Iemitsu, but they have obviously taken a liking to Mama, Lambo and Tenth. The girl even gave Tenth an odd bracelet as a sign of thanks just before he left for a second trip to the grocery store.

Which brings Gokudera to the current problem. Tenth’s wallet and phone are on the table in front of him, in the exact same spot Gokudera had placed them after he ran out to get the items to Tenth, failed to find him in the store or on the way there or back, and returned home with the necessary groceries, but disturbingly Tenthless.

That was almost two hours ago.

Gokudera has to physically keep his fingers still so he wouldn’t call Reborn. It is precisely why Nono requested Reborn to remain in Italy, to see how well they fare without him.

Nono also gave them a few days of vacation to see their families. Or at least everyone who had families in Japan got to do that. As they had no one to visit, Tenth kindly allowed Gokudera and Lambo to stay with him. (Gokudera _did not_ cry about that even if Lambo still teases him.)

The mission itself is pretty straightforward. In many cities all over Japan the number of homeless children has suddenly grown. Nono asked them to find out why and who and where and take necessary actions to solve the problem. They were given only solid facts and nothing else, but Tenth has already found the first lead and even Hibari confessed to having found some clues. The mission should be a breeze.

So they had a brief meeting after Tenth brought home those two children. They agreed to start working on the mission tomorrow when the children would hopefully be settled enough for some questioning. Everything should be fine.

And yet nothing is fine.

Tenth still hasn’t returned. Tenth is strong and can easily take care of himself, but Gokudera can’t help the burning feeling of dread low in his stomach.

“Tsu-kun sure is late,” Mama sighs absently, slipping breaded shrimp into the hot oil.

And that’s the final straw. Gokudera is up from his seat and rushing towards the front door before the shrimp can start sizzling.

“I’ll go find him!” he yells, stumbling over untied shoelaces.

“Be careful, Gokudera-kun!” she calls after him but he’s already out the door by then, fumbling with his phone to call the others.

-x-

The man stays silent for a good few minutes, just silently watching. Mochida has no idea what’s going on or why the man thinks he’s Vongola. And he can’t check for Tsuna’s reaction or instructions on how to behave either because the man is keeping firm eye contact. His every move is being assessed, every emotion on his face judged. It’s not that much different than facing an exceptionally strong opponent in a kendo match, so Mochida does his best to look brave and fearless.

But the time ticking away in the uncomfortable silence does its work. By the time the man roughly grabs his chin between two thin fingers, forcefully turning his head this way and that, he’s beyond terrified. If this was a kendo match, he would’ve lost already.

“Decimo’s Guardians really are awfully young. Awfully scared too, in situations they are unfamiliar with,” he says almost softly and lets him go. “You can call me Stefan. Is it okay if I call you Ken-kun? Or do you prefer Ken-tan?”

“I prefer you shutting your mouth,” he says and gets punched in the face. Hard.

Right. Kidnapping 101: don’t mouth off at someone holding your life in their hands. He doesn’t need Tsuna to tell him that.

“I believe the rule is called ‘talk shit, get hit’, Ken-kun,” Stefan says distantly. He reaches into his pocket and Mochida uses his distraction to glance at Tsuna. He’s staring back at him with wide eyes and pale face, but he mouths something. It takes a moment for Mochida to understand.

_‘Sorry. Change of plans. Don’t say anything._ ’

Change of plans? So don’t tell Stefan anything at all, not even his makeshift alias? Don’t tell him that Tsuna’s the Vongola, not him? He wasn’t planning on telling anyway, unless things got too bad.

Clinking of metal gets his attention to Stefan again. He is holding up the ring Tsuna was wearing earlier from the chain connecting the two pieces.

“I must admit,” he starts slowly, “that this is the oddest ring I’ve ever seen. I can’t even tell what flames it uses. Not that it makes a difference to me. I have Sky flames, so no matter what flames the ring has, I’ll be able to use at least a part of them. But I wonder what will happen if I put the ring on. Will I get Vongola’s power? They are said to be the most powerful ones in the whole world and after the Arcobaleno pacifiers were destroyed, nothing can compete with them.”

He moves to slip the ring on his right hand’s fingers.

“Er. I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Tsuna says quietly from the side.

Stefan stops and turns to Tsuna, as if he hadn’t noticed him before. “And who are you?”

“Not important. But I’m trying to save your life here,” he says.

“How so?”

“Well, how do I say it… The last incompatible person who tried to use a Vongola ring, started disintegrating from the inside. Like, his organs turning to mush and such. Was not a pretty sight. He kept throwing up blood the entire time it took us to remove the ring. Poor guy was in so much pain that he wasn’t coherent enough to do it himself. Couldn’t even scream.” He pauses. “And seeing that the only two people in this room who can help you are tied up… well…”

“You lie.”

Tsuna just shrugs. “Go ahead then. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Stefan spends a few moments glaring at Tsuna, then turns to Mochida. He shrugs as well. He still doesn’t know what Tsuna’s new plan is, but he’ll play along.

“Why stop me then? I am your enemy.”

Tsuna sighs like he’s dealing with an idiot. “ _Think_ for a moment here, Stefan. We’re tied up pretty good. No way to escape unless someone helps us. What would happen if your men walked in and found your disfigured corpse at our feet? We’d be slaughtered on sight.”

Stefan hesitates, but puts the ring back in his pocket.

“I see. You’re the clever one, aren’t you?”

“Clever? Me? No, not at all. I mean, like, I still don’t know how to multiply with seven. I’m just trying to save my own skin here, since senpai is being useless.”

“Heh, I thought I’d ignore you, but you are rather interesting. Your name, brat.”

“Not my fault you haven’t done your research.”

Mochida yells when Stefan wraps a hand tightly around Tsuna’s throat, cutting off his flow of air.

“There’s only one signal coming from this room, so you can’t have active flames. You’re not a fighter with this body and you’re definitely not a Guardian. But you know Vongola. Your name, brat. And your association to Vongola. _Now_.”

“Eat shit,” Tsuna croaks out. Stefan punches him in the stomach with his free hand. Tsuna seizes violently, trying to cough, but Stefan keeps his grip firm.

“Hey, let him go!” Mochida yells.

To his surprise Stefan really does let him go and even takes a step back. Tsuna doubles over coughing and trying to catch his breath.

“Your companion is braver than you are, Ken-kun. And you seem to care for his wellbeing.” He considers something. “I wonder… how fast would breaking his will break yours?”

Tsuna spits blood at his feet and smiles like at some joke only he knows. “You can try to break my will. Good luck. You’ll need it.”

Stefan grins. He walks to a corner where there is a pile of bricks. He digs around for a while and drags out a metal pipe. The way he carries it back to Tsuna suggests that it’s heavy.

“Senpai?” Tsuna says. “Remember what I told you earlier?”

_‘Even if they succumb to torture,_ do not tell _. It_ will _be much worse if they know.’_ Of course he remembers. There is no way he would forget. Doesn’t mean he likes it, especially when Stefan swings the pipe a few times right in front of his face to test its weight.

“But-”

“ _Senpai_.”

“…Fine.”

Stefan leans the pipe over his shoulder. “Mind letting me in on your little secret as well?”

“Oh, sure!” Tsuna says with a shit-eating grin. Mochida never knew Tsuna could even make that kind of expression. “I just said that I bet your breath stinks really bad. I was right.”

Stefan laughs. “Sticks and stones, brat, sticks and stones. But a metal pipe can do far worse than just break your bones.”

Tsuna keeps his smile wide. Mochida hangs his head and closes his eyes, wishing he was back home where he wouldn’t have to deal with mafia and kidnapping and metal pipes and stupidly, absolutely idiotically brave Dame-Tsuna.

This is easily the worst day in his entire life.

-x-

Gokudera has already finished running through all the streets near Tenth’s house, peeking into neighbouring gardens when he could. He knows that Yamamoto is scanning the shopping district and Sasagawa is on the streets around Namimori Middle. Chrome is looking into the parks and the riverbank and Hibari is… Hibari.

Gokudera couldn’t reach him on the phone, but he’s probably patrolling the streets without anyone prompting him to do it anyway. At least… that’s what Tenth would say. Gokudera never understood Tenth’s trust in the wayward Cloud, but he isn’t going to question it too much. Tenth has always been good at seeing right through people and if Tenth says that he can be trusted, then Gokudera is going to trust him whether he likes it or not. And whether _Hibari_ likes it or not.

He runs back to the house to get his motorcycle. It will be faster to comb through the town with it, even if he might miss some details. But just as he throws one leg over the bike something soft lands on his face and he yelps as he loses his balance and falls backwards to the ground.

He’s about to rip the thing on his face to shreds for disturbing his search for Tenth, but something about the item looks awfully familiar. Tenth’s glove!

“Tenth! You’re-“

“Wrong,” Hibari cuts him off. He’s leaning against Gokudera’s bike like he owns it.

“You _bastard!_ Why do you have this? _Where is Tenth!?”_

“Shut up. You’re loud,” Hibari says and continues before Gokudera can start yelling again, “I found it. In an alley near the school. Along with this.”

He raises a ziploc bag with a feathered dart in it.

Gokudera already feels dread pooling in his stomach. “What’s that?”

“Some sort of tranquilliser, I assume. There’s some blood on the needle and I could get it tested, but I’m certain that won’t be necessary.”

“Tenth was taken,” he says, feeling faint.

“Most likely.”

Gokudera grabs his head, leaning low. He breathes in and out deeply for a few times, refusing to panic. Tenth _can’t_ be missing. Something so awful just _can’t_ be happening.

“I sent the locations to your phone,” Hibari says.

That’s right, now is not the time to panic! It’s time to save Tenth!

Gokudera forces the panic down and digs out his phone in record speed to check the newest message from an unknown number. Of course Hibari would change his number and no tell anyone about it.

The message consists of only letters and numbers. “Coordinates. But there’s six of them?”

“Yes. Unfortunately, with the limited time, I was unable to locate their true base. Checking all of these one by one might attract unwanted attention and I do not have enough people at my disposal to check them all at once. There is a high chance that the small animal is kept in one of these locations. And since there haven’t been any reports of fire emergencies tonight, I believe he is either still unconscious from the drug, or they have found a way to restrict his flames.”

He pales. “Is that even possible?”

“Not a clue. But I will find out.”

“And you’re really willingly working with us?”

He completely expects Hibari to attack for implying that, but he only crosses his arms over his chest, the scowl on his face turning deeper. Gokudera refuses to give in to the urge to check social media to see if the zombie apocalypse is finally happening. Perhaps Yellowstone finally blew up?

“It’s _my town_ they’re messing with. I will bite them to death for that even if I have to… _team up._ ” He presses the last two words out as if it’s physically painful to do so. “I leave the last four locations to you and your motley crew. You have fifteen minutes to get to your position.”

Gokudera is already calling Yamamoto. “I’m only listening to you for the sake of Tenth,” he informs while the phone dials.

“As if I would care. Well then, I have made my delivery, Gokudera Hayato,” he says, turning away.

“Eh? Hey, you’re going already!?”

“There are herbivores that need to be hunted down. You should move too, if you want the small animal back.”

_“Gokudera? Did you find Tsuna?”_

“Wait, Hibari!”

Yamamoto can wait a minute. He needs to ask something first. Something he’s been curious about for a long time.

Hibari stops and glares back, holding a tonfa. “For giving me an order, I will bite you to death.”

He shakes his head. Any other time he would gladly fight it out with Hibari, but Tenth might be in real danger. He can’t afford it. “Why do you keep calling him small animal?”

Hibari looks at him like he’s an idiot. But then Hibari looks at everyone like they’re idiots.

“Because he is a small animal. Weak and scared of everything, scrambling desperately to protect things that are not his to protect-”

“Hey!”

“And when he bites, he does so viciously, with unparalleled determination. All you have to do to see his true strength is wait until his patience snaps. It is quite mesmerising,” he says and jumps over a fence, disappearing into the night.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ken means dog and –tan honorific is often used to refer to dogs and other animals. I’m pretty proud of this pun. 
> 
> Hibari is so extra. I love him. I also love how clearly you can see the difference between older and younger Hibari in the anime/manga/whatever. I mean, older Hibari is still pretty much a psychopath, but he’s like, more willing to work with others to reach his goals. Or at least more willing to throw others at the smallfry while he goes and takes down the big boss. And older Hibari does seem to have at least some respect for Tsuna.
> 
> Also, I don’t actually know if Skies can use all rings, but since they can open all boxes, they should be able to use the rings, too. Right?
> 
> And finally some simple, completely unnecessary math. If Mochida is twenty here then Tsuna is nineteen and Lambo was five when Tsuna was thirteen so that means if Tsuna is nineteen now then Lambo is... um. Eleven? Ehhhh I suck at math.
> 
> Thank you all who left kudos or commented or supported this fic in any other way! I love you guys!
> 
> I'm also on Tumblr and Twitter as ThaBlueSheep. (Come talk to me, I'm lonely.)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all who commented, left kudos, bookmarked, or subscribed! You're the best!
> 
>  **Warnings:** Graphic descriptions of violence and torture, but no actual gruesome torture, I promise. Just… uhhh I never intended this to go so far. I am sorry. I am also a victim to my own imagination. And I had entirely too much fun with this and I'm not sure if i should be disturbed by that or nah.

It’s an unassuming bar with blinking neon lights, some kind of pop song playing loud enough that Gokudera can hear it even where he’s hiding behind some trash cans. Groups of people are standing in front of the bar, smoking, drinking, and chatting. Gokudera couldn’t care less about them.

Overall it doesn’t look like a place a group of kidnapping idiots would hide and Hibari also implied that some of the locations might have nothing to do with the group, but Gokudera is not about to take any chances. Who knows, they might hide Tenth in the basement or something.

“I’m in position. Status report,” he orders into his earpiece. He is technically Tenth’s right hand, even if he has yet to admit it, so during Tenth’s absence, he’s the highest in the command chain.

 _“I’m ready,”_ Chrome says softly, the microphone barely catching her voice.

 _“I’ll be there in 30 seconds,”_ Sasagawa all but yells and Gokudera frowns. The difference between Chrome’s quietness and Sasagawa’s loudness is too large. He’ll have to ask Spanner to adjust the volume levels again. _“What about Yamamoto?”_

“Damn idiot forgot his earpiece. He just texted he’s ready, though.”

_“And Hibari?”_

“Hell knows him. He changed his number again and refuses to use the earpiece Tenth gave him. Ungrateful bastard.”

Gokudera absently scratches Uri behind the ear who allows that for exactly two seconds before swatting at his hand. Gokudera swats back, missing completely.

He sighs at the four neat bleeding lines decorating his hand and wills Uri back into his belt buckle. As much as he’d like to storm the place and burn it to the ground, he can’t confirm if the bar has anything to do with the ones who kidnapped Tenth from his position. And there are most likely civilians in there. He knows Tenth would hate to get them involved, so his mission will require stealth and patience.

_“Haha, sounds just like him. I’m sure he’ll get the job done. I’m ready now.”_

“Good. Well then, let’s get Tenth back. Mission start in three… two… one…”

-x-

Mochida tries hard not to listen, but even through Tsuna’s winter coat the sickening sound of metal hitting flesh echoes loud and brutal in the empty room. Still, Tsuna hasn’t so much as winced and so Mochida also tries his best to not look, not react, and to definitely keep his mouth firmly shut. Tsuna seems to at least somewhat know what he is doing, and Mochida doesn’t want to interfere with whatever plan he has plotted.

Then he hears a revolting crack and Tsuna yelps before coughing violently. Mochida can’t keep himself still and he snarls, willing the sturdy metal of his handcuffs to break so he could punch that Stefan guy in the face. If only he had his shinai. Even a bamboo sword could do some good damage when used right.

Stefan smiles cheerfully at his reaction. “Hear that sound, Ken-kun? Do you know what it is? That’s the sound of ribs breaking. You know what that means? A few more hits and pieces of broken bone will pierce lungs. I can imagine drowning in your own blood is not a nice way to die.”

Mochida opens his mouth to throw a few insults at his face, but Tsuna gives a strained laugh.

“Good massage, Stefan. I already feel all the tension leaving my body. Have you thought about becoming a physiotherapist?”

Stefan stops and looks at Tsuna, surprised. Then he laughs. “Damn, you’re fun, kid. Makes me think maybe you’re a Guardian too. A flameless Guardian… how fitting for Vongola.” He leans the pipe against Tsuna’s left shoulder. “I see your shoulder’s looking a bit stiff as well. Release the burden of your name and the purpose of Vongola in Namimori and I promise, I’ll be gentle.”

“You want a name? Okay, how about… hmm… how about Sawada?”

Tsuna lets out a strained cry as the pipe connects with his shoulder.

“Don’t fuck with me, brat. You think I’d believe that a flameless runt like you is Decimo? The one who’s allied with Giglio Nero and the fucking Vindice? The one who has Varia’s loyalty? You don’t even have Ken-kun’s loyalty here, as he’s not doing much to stop me.” He pushes one end of the pipe against Tsuna’s ribs. He grits his teeth, holding back a groan. “Well, that, or he’s just cold-hearted like all of you Vongola freaks.”

“Hey, leave him alone!” Mochida yells, ignoring Tsuna’s warning glance.

“So you’ll reach your limit first, Ken-kun? Going to talk now?”

Tsuna tries to say something but whines as Stefan pushes harder. Dread gnaws on Mochida’s guts, the metal of the handcuffs burning his wrists, the chain pulled taut. He’s not sure how much longer Tsuna can last before Stefan causes some irreparable damage, but he doesn’t _know_ anything. He’s not Vongola, he doesn’t know anything, he _can’t help Tsuna_.

“I don’t… I-I’m not…”

“Why- ugh… why would he talk when my five year old brother hits harder than you do,” Tsuna interrupts, his voice strained and breathing ragged and Mochida just wants to hiss at Tsuna to keep his mouth shut. Can’t he see that being a smartass isn’t helping the situation at all?!

But Stefan steps back, his eyes sparkling with sick curiosity. “You have a little brother?”

Tsuna coughs a few times, but breathes a little easier with the pressure gone on his chest. “Mo-more like a little hellion. Loves creating chaos. He could tear this entire place down two seconds flat.”

“Is your little brother stronger than you, then?”

Tsuna grins, but it’s a fragile little thing and he’s wheezing. “Untie me and you’ll find out.”

Stefan pretends to think about it for a moment with one finger on his lips. “Hmm… Thanks, but no thanks. It’s been a while since I’ve had so much fun. And I’m not so stupid to underestimate injured flameless people. I’ll find your brother later. If he’s half as feisty as you are, I’m sure he’ll suit wonderfully to further our goal, flames or not.”

Tsuna snorts, but his expression remains stoic. “What goal? Why are you collecting children?”

Stefan pinches his chin between two slender fingers. “Not my fault you haven’t done your research, brat.”

Tsuna scrunches his nose. “Get out of my face. Your breath stinks.”

Stefan slaps him across his face. Then he rises the pipe over his shoulder again with an ugly grin that makes Mochida’s blood freeze in his veins.

“I wonder if seeing you slowly drown in your own blood will loosen your senpai’s tongue…”

Tsuna’s eyes go wide and the resolution he’s carried the whole night falters. He looks scared for the first time since they met in that godforsaken alley.

“H-hey, wait,” he tries.

“I won’t wait.”

The pipe goes even higher and Mochida knows he should look away, he _knows_ what’s about to happen will haunt him for years if he ever manages to escape this place, but the pipe isn’t stopping and Tsuna is pale and frozen on the spot and someone’s yelling. _Mochida_ is yelling for Stefan to _stop-_

The door bursts open, bringing about an abrupt silence as all three in the room freeze. The pipe clatters uselessly on the floor, never reaching its target.

“Sorry to interrupt your fun, boss, but we got a situation,” a lazy voice calls from the doorway.

“This had better be important,” Stefan hisses at the short fat man. He has a big nose and black and wavy greasy hair. The brown stains on the shirt under his light jacket look suspiciously like dried blood.

“It is,” the man confirms. Stefan growls, but goes out the door with him, closing it behind him.

Mochida waits with bated breath, not daring to move. He only releases it when he hears muffled voices behind the door, too quiet to make out words. He glances at Tsuna who looks… well, shell-shocked might be the right word.

“Tsuna? Hey, Tsuna!” he whispers urgently.

Tsuna flinches a little and winces at the movement. “Ha. Haha. Oops? I didn’t think he’d actually try to kill me yet. I almost dropped it…”

“Are you okay? Wait, no, that’s a stupid question. Are you… will you live?”

“Eh? Ah, y-yeah, don’t worry, senpai. I think my coat protected me from the worst of it.”

“But your ribs? Shoulder?”

“Shoulder doesn’t feel broken. Think it’s just dislocated.” He doesn’t say anything about his ribs, but the wheeze in his laboured breathing is enough of an answer. “It’s okay, senpai. I know I’ve made you wait too long already, but it won’t take long now. We’ll get out of here.”

“B-but…”

The door slams against the wall again, revealing Stefan and the other man. Neither of them look pleased.

“Good kids stay silent while the teacher is not in the classroom. Both of you are to be punished for disrupting discipline.” He pauses. “But later. There are some important matters I need to attend to, so I’m afraid we’ll have to continue this later, Vongola. Take care.” Stefan gives them a friendly wave, pushing the other man inside. He stops as he’s about to close the door, patting the pocket where Mochida remembers he put Tsuna’s ring in. “You can try and get answers out of them, Marco, but be careful. The little one has a sharp tongue. Do what you want, but make sure he doesn’t die yet. We might need them both as hostages.”

“Fine, fine, I get it. Just go,” the man identified as Marco says, kicking the door shut after Stefan. “That bitch. He knows I’m no good at keeping people alive.” Hands on his hips, he looks the two of them over critically. “I hope either of you brats isn’t actively dying. I don’t want to treat your wounds before we even get started.”

Mochida glances at Tsuna who’s pale, shaking, and wheezing and probably in a dire need for medical attention, and yet somehow he thinks letting Marco treat any wounds would be the worst idea ever. So he stays quiet instead, following Tsuna’s lead. Meanwhile Marco looks around the room with a scowl on his face, muttering about how prisoners can sit comfortably on chairs while he has to stand.

“Hey, you,” he finally points at Tsuna. “Heard you got a sharp tongue? Your appearance suggests that Boss never got the answers he wanted, huh? I’m not surprised. The man’s never been good at interrogations. Just thinks that unnecessary violence will get him what he wants and so he never bothered to learn to appreciate the finer aspects of information gathering.”

He digs around in his jacket for a moment and brings out… a rat? A medium sized rat with bright red flames coming out of its ears? What the fuck?

“For example,” Marco continues, “meet my friend Topo. I’m sure you Vongola are well informed of the recent discoveries in portable flame weapons and assistant animals. They’re still incredibly expensive, but the concept sounded interesting so I read some leaked papers and decided to try and build one for myself.”

Aaand Mochida is already completely lost. Seriously, what’s up with the whole flame business and why is that rat on fire and why is no one freaking out about that?

“Topo here is just a prototype,” Marco continues, not caring about Mochida’s silent internal despair. “His combat ability is practically zero and his intellectual value is barely any better, though he can follow some basic commands.

“Now I’m sure you’re wondering how can my little buddy help with interrogations. You see, before I got into anatomy and science, I was a history nerd. The kind of little prick who interrupted lessons when the teacher got her facts wrong. And what fascinated me most were medieval torture methods. There was just something about them, about how they were so primitive and simple and yet so brutal, that they attracted me like nothing else.

“There was one method that interested me in particular. It’s the one that actually gave me the inspiration to develop Topo here. Boss has never given me the permission to use it because he thinks it’s too gore-y, but I’m sure it’s fine if it’s Vongola. Not like it’ll kill you immediately anyway, as long as I use a flame animal. Though you’ll wish it did.

“Let me provide you with a demonstration. Excuse me for a moment, Vongola, your coat is a bit too thick.” He leans close and Tsuna futilely tries to flinch back, but the handcuffs keep him still. Marco doesn’t care as he unzips the coat, whistling at the damage he sees. Mochida can’t see from where he is, but he can guess it’s nothing pretty.

“I suppose you really are tough if Boss could deal this much damage and you didn’t break. How fascinating. Your flames are being absorbed by that bracelet, but it seems that you can still use them somewhat to protect your body. Or maybe you really are physically that strong even if you look like a shrimp. Well, no matter. After you spill everything you know, I’ll get to examine you more closely. But first things first.”

He lets Topo climb on Tsuna’s knee. He tries to shake it off, but the rat is holding on tightly. Tsuna looks slightly green from the face and his lips are pressed into a thin line. Mochida also feels nauseous. He’s treacherously glad that he’s not Marco’s target, which makes him feel even sicker.

“Normally it would go like this – I tie you down on a table and put a rat or few into a half-cage. Then I set it on your abdomen. I heat the cage from the top with fire or coal, which makes the rat inside panic and look for a way out. And rats are amazingly good at surviving in tough situations. So when the only way left for the rat to escape is _through_ you, it’ll use the chance. It’ll chew through anything - skin, internal organs, even bones, if they have to. And the feeling of something slowly chewing on your intestines, crawling around under your skin, eating into your stomach, perhaps nibbling on your lunch while he’s at it… Well, I imagine it would make anyone’s mind break.

“Topo isn’t good at fighting, but he is very good at chewing things. Way better than normal rodents thanks to his Storm flames and disintegration characteristic. And he is smarter than normal rodents so I don’t need a cage and fire to make him do as I wish. All it takes for him to start chewing, is an order. And all it takes for him to stop, is information. So what do you say, Vongola? Do you want this to stop even before it begins?”

Mochida sends a silent prayer towards any god nearby that Tsuna will just tell him what he wants. But there’s that idiotic resolve burning in his eyes again and Mochida knows the answer even before he says it.

“Do your worst,” Tsuna spits out.

Mochida groans, wishing he had a way to cover his eyes and ears. And mouth, too, as he feels like he’s going to puke any second.

“I was hoping you’d say that. Would be boring if you didn’t. Well then, my darling Topo, you heard the young man. _Bon appétit_.”

The rat lurches forward.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huhuhuhuu WELP that escalated quickly from bad to awful.
> 
> A guest reviewer at fanfiction asked some good and relevant questions so I’ll be answering them here as well.
> 
> The GPS system they use to track down active bracelets is not that accurate. It pinpoints the target within, say, about 20 meter radius, so it’s hard to tell which bracelet the signal is coming from when they’re so close together. Making the system more accurate would be too expensive. And let’s be honest here. If you had both Mochida and Tsuna in front of you and you’ve been told that one of them is Mafia, which would you guess?  
> The thing about rings just makes sense to me. I'm guessing they can only light Sky flames with the rings, and they'll probably be much weaker than they should be, but as a conduit it should, technically, work. I'm guessing they also can't bring out the Sky flame characteristic with other rings.
> 
> Also, I guess Marco finally got Tsuna to shut his mouth and it seems that he guessed Tsuna was the one with flames. I mean srsly ppl, you gotta work on your communication issues there asap. And hmm… no Guardians to rescue Tsuna and Mochida yet. I wonder where they are…
> 
> As for the torture method I described, it’s real. It was used in medieval times and is considered to be one of the most brutal torture techniques ever plotted. It always ended in death either because of the injuries or the infection that would surely follow. But honestly I think the tortured person would go insane before dying.
> 
> I also have a huge soft spot for Uri as one of my cats has a similar fickle personality as Uri. One minute Otto’s the cuddliest, softest furball ever and the next he’s a hissing spawn of pure evil, ready to rip my face clean off. I love both my cats dearly, though.
> 
> In other news, I am almost done with school! Just a few more things to finish and graduation on 16th and then I’ll be a fully-fledged tailor!
> 
> Please leave a comment before you leave, they are my primal source of inspiration!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually like rats. I think they’re cute. Also, I’m like… Uhhh… I kinda feel like I should apologise to like half of you guys. So, um. Sorry?
> 
> Warnings: Blood and major injury description.

Mochida sees it happen in slow motion and yet still somehow too fast to follow.

The rat launches forward, its eyes burning bright red and the fire from its ears flaring up. Its mouth is wide open, ready to rip into Tsuna’s clothes first and his skin right after.

Just as the rat clings to his shirt, Tsuna kicks up with his foot, hitting Marco in the crotch. Marco bends forward, Tsuna lowers his head and shoots up from his chair, meeting Marco’s chin in a headbutt while grabbing the rat from his shirt with his right hand and pulling it away. Using the same momentum, he ducks under Marco’s arm, circles around him and delivers a swift hit to the back of his neck with his elbow. He takes a step back as Marco’s weight works against him and he goes down hard on his back. The rat in his hand disappears in a flare of red flames and leaves only Tsuna standing over Marco’s unconscious body, the handcuffs dangling around his right wrist.

Everything is perfectly still and silent for a long moment.

Then Mochida watches in a different kind of horror as Tsuna doubles over, his coughs heavy and wet, right hand pressing carefully against his side while his left hangs uselessly.

A few long moments pass before Tsuna is able to catch his breath and stand up straighter. He carefully nudges Marco with a foot. The man doesn’t even twitch.

“Uh. I’m going to have nightmares about this for the rest of my life,” he says hoarsely. “Are you okay, senpai?”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Mochida blurts out much louder than he intended to. Tsuna looks startled too as he glances towards the door, so he forces himself to speak quietly. “You just got beaten half to death and almost had that… that fucking _thing_ fucking _eat you alive_ and you ask _me_ if I’m okay?”

Mochida ends with a gasp for air. First that shitty Stefan comes in and accuses him of being a member of an organisation he knows nothing about, then he beats up Tsuna with a metal fucking pipe and Tsuna still won’t stop running his mouth like no tomorrow, _then_ in comes that creeper Marco and his flaming rat creature and nearly lets it eat a person alive? He’s so fucking pissed at the whole situation! Or maybe he’s just really, really scared because Tsuna is smiling at him gently and it should piss him off even more, but instead he feels… calmer, somehow.

“Mental damage is also a thing. Try to take deep breaths,” Tsuna recommends quietly. He stumbles around Marco back to his chair and scans the ground next to it carefully. “I’ll need your help and it won’t be good if you have a panic attack or turn unresponsive in the middle of it. Ah, there you are!”

He bends down and picks up a… piece of bent wire?

“That’s it? You just picked the handcuffs?”

“Yep! The leather on the chair was stapled there so I just pulled one out. Sorry it took so long, though. I didn’t think picking locks would be so hard after Gokudera-kun made it look so easy.” He crouches down next to Mochida, each movement cautious and deliberate, and fumbles with his handcuffs with his one good hand. “It’s a good thing they underestimated us. If they’d tied up my feet as well, we’d really be in trouble.”

The pressure on his left wrist disappears and suddenly he can move. He brings out his arms and massages and bends his shoulders and god, stretching out has never felt so good. The stiffness dissipates and he can breathe so much easier. Tsuna’s still smiling as he reaches out for his other hand and Mochida lets him pick the handcuffs on that wrist as well.

While he’s working, eyes narrowed in concentration, Mochida’s gaze trails to assess Tsuna’s injuries. The coat is pulled closed again so he still can’t see what’s going on under there, but his erratic breathing gives him a pretty good idea. And from the way his left arm just hangs there limply, the shoulder looking all wrong even through the coat, it has to be dislocated at least.

“I don’t know what to do about your ribs, but I can set your shoulder.”

That breaks Tsuna’s concentration for a second. “You can really do that?”

“Yeah. There’s a kid with a shoulder problem in the dojo. Figured it’d be a good skill to learn.”

A metallic click lets him know that he’s now free again. He immediately rubs his raw wrists, trying to alleviate the pain. There’s a silver bracelet around his right wrist, identical to Tsuna’s.

Tsuna thanks him as he helps him up, but he’s unsteady on his feet.

“So? Shoulder?” Mochida asks, supporting him, mindful of his injured side.

Tsuna shakes his head. “Marco won’t stay unconscious forever and I’m not sure if I can take him down again if he’s expecting it. I need to search him for weapons first, then I’ll need your help tying him up.”

“I’ll do it,” Mochida offers without thinking and immediately wants to punch himself in the face. No. He doesn’t want to do it. He doesn’t want to search through the pockets of someone who has flaming rats hidden somewhere. But Tsuna looks really hurt and sick and he’s been fighting all alone so far. Mochida has to at least try to help him.

“Eh? But-”

“No. You look like you should’ve passed out yesterday. Sit down. I’ll do it,” he repeats way more firmly and confidently than he feels. Without waiting for an answer or for the loss of his courage, he grabs Tsuna by the elbow and forces him to sit on the chair. He still tries to protest but Mochida simply ignores him and approaches Marco.

“Where did the _thing_ go?” he asks, nudging the man with a foot in a similar fashion Tsuna did before. He still doesn’t budge. And, well, if he does wake up then Mochida knows a thing or two about fighting barehanded, too. He’ll just have to be quick.

Tsuna huffs, but doesn’t try to get up. Mochida doesn’t know if that’s a good thing or not. “Back to its box, probably. Or whatever container Marco keeps them in. My guess is that it isn’t very well developed and will lose form when the user loses concentration. He should have a ring. Just remove that and he won’t be able to use it anymore.”

Mochida checks his hands and sure enough, there’s a simple silver ring with a small ruby embedded into the thick band on his right middle finger.

“Yeah, that one. May I have it?” He places it in Tsuna’s open palm. He inspects it briefly in the dim light and pockets it, his expression betraying nothing. “Check all his pockets and take everything out. There has to be at least a few inner pockets. If there’s anything on his belt, remove it as well. And check if he has any other jewellery.” He hesitates. “I can… I can still do it myself if you don’t want to, senpai. Really, I’m-“

“Shut up already. I said I’m doing it, so I will do it.”

Tsuna wisely stays quiet after that.

Mochida takes a few deep breaths before getting to work. He doesn’t find any jewellery, but an inside pocket reveals an odd box, red and with a hole in the lid. Tsuna puts that also into his coat pocket without offering an explanation. There’s a small leather tool roll with a collection of scalpels and small knives, a wallet with only some cash inside, and a larger black pouch on his hip with a few rolls of gauze, antiseptic, a suture kit, and other things like that. Finally he digs out a locked phone that Tsuna grudgingly tries to get to work but dumps on the pile of items not long after, muttering something that doesn’t sound very Japanese.

He doesn’t allow Tsuna to help getting Marco on the chair. He’s been doing kendo since he was a little boy and has the necessary strength, though it still takes a few tries and he’s drenched with sweat by the time he manages to heave him up on the chair, the man’s weight and unconscious state not helping at all. He locks his wrists behind his back with the handcuffs and, following Tsuna’s instructions, sacrifices a roll of gauze to bind his ankles. Then he takes a step back to appreciate his handwork.

“Should I gag him as well?” It sounds like a reasonable thing to do. But Tsuna shakes his head.

“Not yet, I want to ask him a few questions first.”

That makes Mochida freeze. Does Tsuna really have it in him to torture someone? The immediate answer is no, because he looks perfectly harmless, the furthest thing from cruel. But he did just deck a guy three times bigger than himself, so…

Tsuna must’ve guessed what he’s thinking about because he laughs quietly. “I’m not going to torture anyone, senpai. But whether he answers and how he answers will determine our course of action.”

Mochida shrugs. He doesn’t really understand, but… whatever. The young Mafioso must know better. Instead he nods towards the arm Tsuna is carefully cradling in his lap.

“Shoulder now?” Tsuna nods cautiously, so he goes to kneel down next to him. “I can’t do it like this. I need to take your coat off.”

Tsuna gives him a tired, but calculating look. “That’s fine, but you have to promise not to freak out. It… doesn’t look very pretty, but it’s honestly not as bad as it could be.”

“I’m sure I can handle it.” And he is sure of that. He’s seen plenty of injuries in the dojo, from ruptured achilles tendons to that time a guy’s toe bone somehow managed to rip clean through the skin on the bottom of his foot when he tripped on his hakama. That had been fairly disturbing and initiated a full scale check on all the kids’ gear to make sure everything fit perfectly.

But as he carefully helps Tsuna shrug off his coat and finally sees the extent of the injury, his breath hitches and he feels the tell-tale prickling in his eyes and the burning in his throat as his hands involuntarily rise to cover his mouth. Because this… this is not what he’d been expecting. He’d thought, maybe there would be some blood, maybe he’d have to use a roll of gauze to try to wrap it up, but there’s no way he would know where to even _start_ with an injury like this.

“Senpai?”

And, shit… the left side of the hoodie is completely soaked in blood and from the torn hole in the fabric he can see how the shirt underneath sticks to the raw skin. The whole thing looks more like a mess of cloth and gore than a person’s ribcage and it’ll probably take a lot of painkillers and a practiced hand to pull the stuck shirt from his skin. And still Tsuna, the _stupid fucking idiot_ , only looks concerned about Mochida.

He really should’ve insulted Stefan more. Maybe then Tsuna would be less hurt.

“S-senpai?” He’s alarmed now, not just concerned anymore. “You… you don’t have to do anything. If you’d just help me get my coat back on, you can forget about it, okay? It’s f-fine, I’ve got high pain tolerance and I’ll still do my best to keep you safe so just… just… P-please don’t c-cry.”

Mochida blinks in surprise. Cry? He hasn’t cried in years.

He wipes a hand across his face and sure enough, his cheeks are wet. How odd.

“Senpai, _please_ ,” Tsuna pleads again and for the first time this night Mochida sees how scared he is. He’s been a fearless pillar of support the whole night, but he’s really just been carrying his own fear and gritting his teeth against the pain and bearing Mochida’s weight on top of it all. He’s just as afraid as Mochida is. He’s just much, much braver.

Mochida still can’t allow someone else to carry his weight.

Without a word he takes hold of Tsuna’s arm, extra careful not to touch his side while frantically pulling at the memory about dislocated shoulders. He’s really only done this once and that was on a healthy trained man, not on a skinny injured teenager.

Right. Support the forearm while rotating the upper arm like _this._

Wait. He’s forgetting something.

He peeks up at Tsuna’s face, noting how pale and tense he is, how shallow his breathing is, even if he’s not saying anything.

“You need to relax,” his voice is much calmer than he thought it’d be. “It’ll only hurt if you’re tense like this.”

Tsuna lets out a shaky breath and tries to relax, but it’s not doing much. Not that Mochida can blame him. Kind of hard to relax when your side looks like an accident with a rebellious chainsaw.

He tugs harder at the memory, the physician’s words sharper in his head. _‘Distraction is the key.’_ But how to distract someone who looks two seconds away from keeling over? Or more importantly, how to distract Tsuna?

“You so totally owe me for this.”

Tsuna slumps in defeat. “I _know_. I’m _so sorry_ you got caught up in this. I… I’ll pay you back with whatever you want. I can even talk to Ninth, maybe he can spare some funds.”

“No. I want information.”

“O… kay?” He tilts his head. “About what?”

He nods towards Marco. “About this. Why are we here? And that… _creature_. You’ve seen them before.”

“I guess you deserve to know.” He sighs. “I’ve got some ideas about what they want, but nothing certain yet. I’ll have to discuss it with others first, they’ve probably found something by now. All I know for certain is that they’re targeting young children. As for the box animal, yeah, I’ve seen them before. I actually have one, though he’s very different from what Marco has. There’s no time to explain how they work and I’m not good with the technical stuff anyway, but you’ve already seen flames so I can show you Natsu once we get out of here and I get this stupid bracelet- Eh?”

Mochida feels the satisfying pop of a bone moving back to its socket.

“There. That should do it for now.”

He pats Tsuna gently on the shoulder as he carefully tries to move his arm.

“Seriously? That’s amazing! I hardly felt anything!” He’s still careful with his movements, but beams a smile up at Mochida. “Thank you, senpai. This feels much better.”

“Yeah, just don’t go crazy with it. You should really wear a sling for a while to make sure it doesn’t get dislocated again. But should I… is there anything I _can_ do about _that_?” He gestures at his side, not really wanting to touch it. What if he only makes it worse while attempting to help?

Fortunately Tsuna seems to think the same. “That’s probably not a good idea. It’s not bleeding that much and it’s mostly just numb now anyway, so I can deal with it.”

He frowns. “I don’t think numb is a good sign.”

“No, probably not. But it’s better for now.” He slowly pulls his coat back on, clumsily fumbling with the zipper. “More importantly, are you feeling a little better now, senpai?”

Mochida wipes a hand over his face again. It comes off dry this time. “Yeah, I’m fine now.” But still, how embarrassing. To be crying over some blood. Even if it was more blood than he’d ever seen before.

Tsuna just smiles briefly before looking at Marco. “It seems that our friend is starting to wake up, too.”

Mochida turns back to him as well and sees him stirring. He looks much less threatening tied up like that.

Tsuna slowly gets up from the chair with Mochida’s help and takes the two remaining rolls of gauze from the black pouch. Then he stands in front of Marco, and while the man wakes up more, he unrolls one roll of gauze and makes a tight ball out of it.

As soon as Marco looks awake enough, Tsuna starts without any introduction with a soft but confident voice, “You are under attack, aren’t you? That’s why Stefan left in a hurry before. But this place is fine and Hibari-san isn’t someone who would miss important information like this. Why is this base not under attack?”

Marco blinks dazedly a few times before pushing his lips into a thin line and looking away. Tsuna isn’t at all fazed by that.

“Look. Hibari-san will find you eventually one way or another. You can either answer me now or you can answer him later. But his bites hurt much more than mine and you messed with his town. I doubt he’ll have much mercy on you.”

Marco fidgets, hesitating. He gives up shortly. “Fine. Our previous location was compromised so we moved here just last night. Even Hibari can’t know about this place because it simply didn’t exist before today.”

“I see. Are the children here?”

Marco gives an ugly grin. “No, but don’t worry. That base is swarming with Vongola trash as well, as far as I know.”

“You don’t seem to mind.”

He shrugs. “Small loss. You, however, can’t use your flames, you’re badly injured, and the other guy is a civilian, isn’t he?” Mochida sticks his tongue out at him, but gets ignored. “There’s no one coming to save you and it’s just a matter of time before someone comes to check this room. You’ll never get out of here alive.”

Tsuna sighs softly, carefully. “I’m not a damsel in distress and I don’t need a saviour, Marco. But thank you for answering my questions. I’ll ask Hibari-san to be gentle on you, but I can’t guarantee my words will help much.” He holds out the ball of gauze. “Please open your mouth now.”

“Wait. Before you gag me, who are you really?”

The answering smile is bitter. “Did you know that there’s only one person amongst the Tenth Generation that uses a ring? Next time you want to challenge Vongola, do your research first,” Tsuna says and shoves the ball into his mouth, doing quick work of wrapping the other roll of gauze around the lower half of his face. He sighs again once it’s done.

“I guess there’s no cavalry coming to save us after all, senpai. We’ll have to get out by ourselves,” Tsuna says lightly, as if the thought of possibly fighting through an enemy base doesn’t terrify him. He bends his neck this way and that, and rolls his shoulders, careful with the injured one. There’s still that wheeze in his breath.

“Should you really be moving around?”

“It’s not like there’s much choice. Marco’s right, someone will come to check this room sooner or later and I’d rather not be here when they do.” He pats one of his pockets and pulls out a woollen mitten. “And maybe I can still use my gloves- Eh? Wait. Just one? Where did I drop the other one?” He pats his other pockets and looks around the room frantically, voice rising in panic. “Ah, shit, must’ve been back in that stupid alley. Reborn’s going to _eradicate_ me.”

“Um?”

Tsuna shakes his head in defeat. “Never mind. Let’s just go.”

Without waiting for an answer, Tsuna grabs Mochida’s sleeve and pulls him along. He opens the door silently and looks both ways before turning back to Marco.

“I know Stefan didn’t take my ring with him. Could you tell me which way might I find it?” Tsuna is perfectly neutral, he doesn’t spew threats and even his stance promises no violence. Maybe that’s exactly why Marco starts before jerkily nodding left. Tsuna studies him a while longer.

“Okay, thanks,” he says, steps out the door and turns left into a long hallway, dragging Mochida behind him from his sleeve.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Mochida. He’s so not into what’s happening. And excessive politeness is terrifying.
> 
> It’s probably high time to mention that I don’t have a beta and English is not my first language, but I’m always aiming to become better at it. So all linguistic suggestions are very much welcome.
> 
> So about the apology. They’re not quite out the deep water yet, but… You guys... y’all who expected the Guardians to barge in and save Tsuna… you srsly underestimate him here. Tsuna doesn’t need a saviour. I mean. C’mon. He fought and won against an insane dimension-hopping omnipotent god who was obsessed with taking over the multiverse. Have some faith in my boy.
> 
> With that said, I still ABSOLUTELY ADORE ALL YOU GUYS WHO COMMENT! I love the way you write theories about what’ll happen and I love how you’re making my life hell trying to answer without spoiling too much. And I love all of those who don’t comment, but still lurk around, maybe considering clicking that kudos button. You’re all amazing!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m very glad that I have managed to deceive people into thinking that I’m good at English. It’s something I constantly worry about.
> 
> With regards to that reviewer who asked for Chrome. I hope this is okay.

The base is located underground and there is a Mist illusion cloaking the entrance. A quite elaborate one actually, something that even Boss would have to look twice at before figuring it out. Even Cloud probably only found it by observing the group’s movements and deeming the location as ‘suspicious’ at best.

The illusion feels like nothing to Chrome as she slips past it without tearing any of the constructions.

Infiltration is even easier. All she has to do is cast two illusions. One to conceal an open door and one to turn herself invisible. Both are beginner-level illusions, something she used to toy around with even before she met Mukuro-sama.

She listens in on conversations in the large room behind the front door. There are maybe fifteen men huddled together, playing poker and drinking alcohol, agitated because their other bases are under attack, but Chrome does not hear a word about Boss or any other prisoners.

She concludes that Boss is most likely not here, but there is something else hidden, something important for the mission. The others will take care of Boss.

So she begins the painstaking process of searching through the entire base.

At first she does not find much. A few storage rooms, some small bedrooms with too many cots crammed inside, an infirmary that is too well equipped for her comfort, a few training rooms fit to train an entire army, and a large kitchen.

She wanders deeper underground where the air is cold and damp and the only illumination are the dusty yellow lamps, flickering uncertainly and casting eerie shadows on the walls.

The last door in the hallway is large and made of metal. It opens not with a key, but with a code and Chrome casts another illusion, strong enough to fool the simple machine into thinking the code is correct.

The door opens silently and she steps into a cold room. It is pitch black and she summons a Mist light, visible only to her eyes.

What is revealed makes her breath hitch and fury burn darkly in her chest.

A row of small metal barred cells line the wall. In each cell there is a child, each of them aged somewhere between five and ten. They are sitting in uncanny silence on the low chair inside the cell. The smallest one is sniffling, trying to stifle the sounds with her sleeve to her mouth. None of the others react to that. They keep staring blankly forward in a creepy state of apathy she remembers being in once upon a time.

She keeps up the illusion that she is not there to not scare the children as her fingers raise to gently touch a button on her earpiece.

“Storm. I found children. Ten of them.”

At first the speaker only crackles and whines. She must be deep enough underground for even Vongola technology to work without issues. Eventually Storm answers. Loud music plays in the background.

“ _Just ten?_ ”

“Just… just ten.” Was he angry with her? Did she fail for not finding more? Storm is sometimes so hard to understand. It is easier to talk to Boss. Boss is never so… sharp.

“ _Okay… Okay, well, ten will have to do for now. We’ll find the rest later._ ” She lets out a small sigh of relief. Storm does not sound angry about it. “ _Do you need backup? I’d come but… I’m a little busy right now._ ”

“To fight – no. To help the children – yes.”

Sun’s booming voice startles her. “ _My place is extremely abandoned! I know your location, Chrome, I’ll be there in five minutes._ ”

“Understood. I will break the illusion on the entrance.”

All is quiet after that and Chrome leaves the room as silently as she entered. She returns to where the men are and with a gentle tap on the ground with her trident, the illusion on the entrance is ripped apart. The men all snap to attention, throwing playing cards on the table and pulling out their weapons. Grouping together in front of the entrance, they await to face whatever attack is looming upon them.

They do not know that Chrome is already behind them.

-x-

The hallway ahead of them is long, illuminated with insufficient light. There are a few doors in the distance, some crates, large boxes, and general trash line the walls. It looks the same both ways, with a staircase leading up at the end.

The air is cold and damp and Mochida is sure they’re in a basement of sorts. It’s hard to tell without windows.

It’s quiet, with only their footsteps causing a muffled echo. Or Mochida’s footsteps. Tsuna is so silent, he can’t hear him at all. He’s somehow even reigned in his shitty at best breathing.

They encounter a door and Tsuna stops, listening behind it for a short moment. Then he cracks it open and peeks inside. It’s a similar room to where they just escaped from, but way bigger. Tsuna grumbles something, closes the door and keeps running down the hallway.

Though, for all he knows, Marco could’ve been lying. Maybe he’s trying to guide them into a trap. Tsuna wasn’t exactly threatening there, there was no reason for Marco to tell them the truth.

“Hey, what-“

Tsuna shushes him sharply, and pulls him down to hide behind a crate.

A few seconds later the door just a few meters ahead of them opens. Mochida presses himself more against the wall.

Tsuna winces beside him and Mochida watches in horror as he clasps a hand over his mouth, eyes closed, shaking, and barely breathing. He looks like he’s in terrible pain.

“Hey, you heard that?”

“Heard what?”

Shit, that’s Sword Lady. She’s together with some man. Mochida doesn’t dare to peek, but he thinks they’re still standing there in front of the door.

Tsuna silently crumbles further down on the floor and Mochida has no idea what to do. If they’re found, they’ll be killed for sure. Tsuna can’t even breathe so he won’t be of any use in a fight and Mochida doesn’t have a weapon. Should he just stay silent and pray they won’t find them? Should he try to attack while they’re not expecting it? There’s two of them and Sword Lady defeated him so easily when he _did_ have a weapon but still, the element of surprise is a strong one-

Tsuna gently tugs on his sleeve. There are tear tracks on his cheeks from suppressed coughing, but he shakes his head sharply and confidently.

“Guess it’s just Marco having fun with Vongola,” she finally, _finally_ concludes and Mochida releases a breath he didn’t know he was holding. The footsteps slowly move away from them.

“Shouldn’t we go check on him?”

“Fuck, no. You saw how fucking excited he was about testing out his new weapon. It doesn’t matter if it’s Vongola, I don’t wanna see anyone’s guts on cold concrete floor with Marco standing over the mess and laughing. The asshole creeps me out enough as it is.”

“You just had to describe that so clearly, didn’t you? Goddamn it, now I can totally imagine him doing exactly that. _Thank you_ for the nightmares.”

“It’s my pleasure. Honestly though, Boss should put a fucking leash on him. It’s clear that he’s some sort of sociopath. What if he discovers that fucking with kids isn’t fun anymore and turns on us?”

The voices fade away as they climb the stairs, but there’s no time to relax. Tsuna’s almost fully on the floor by now, only sheer stubbornness keeping him up on one hand. Mochida tries to support him, but Tsuna flinches as soon as he touches him and he just… hurt him even more. He honestly feels like crying again.

Tsuna motions towards the room Sword Lady and the man just came out of and… he can’t be serious.

“What if there’s someone still inside?” he whispers. He knows he sounds desperate, but can’t bring himself to care. Tsuna just shakes his head, implying that the room is empty and Mochida doesn't have a clue how he knows. But he’s right. The hallway echoes too loud for them to stay here with Tsuna as he is. “Okay, but if we die, I’ll haunt you forever.”

Tsuna tries to get up, but as much as he pushes against the floor, it’s not doing much. After the third failed try Mochida decides that, fuck it, it’ll hurt him, but at least it’s faster, and pulls Tsuna up, ignoring the way he whines quietly, drapes his good arm over his shoulders and all but drags him along.

He sucks in a deep breath and gently nudges the door open with a foot, ready to drop Tsuna and fight if he has to.

No attack comes.

The room is dark, but with the dim light from the hallway he can see that it’s much smaller than the other two rooms they’ve seen. He locates a switch next to the door and flicks the lights on.

There’s a mismatched desk and a chest of drawers making up a makeshift office, both looking like they were hastily brought in as temporary furniture. There’s also a few of those same metal chairs against the wall and a floor lamp in a corner.

Tsuna’s knees buckle and he almost slips from Mochida’s grasp, so he ignores everything else for now. Closing the door, he almost carries Tsuna to the large leather office chair behind the desk. It looks much more comfortable than any of those metal chairs.

He sets him down carefully and looks wildly around the room. Isn’t there anything that could help? Water maybe? There are bottles lined on the chest of drawers and he jumps to see what they are. There’s vodka, whiskey, some blue drink he doesn’t care to inspect any closer, several bottles of wine. Do these people only drink alcohol? Finally he finds a water bottle and uncaps it with a triumphant noise, taking a sip to make sure it really is water.

He turns back to Tsuna just to see him leaning heavily over the armrest, heaving hard as he pukes on the ground. The heaves blend into coughs when there’s nothing left to puke and all Mochida can do is rub his back.

Tsuna calms down slowly. He can still feel him shivering under his hand and he looks so small and frail on the large chair and… for fuck’s sake, his feet don’t even touch the ground. He presses the bottle into his shaking hands when he straightens up against the backrest.

“Sorry, senpai. I almost got us caught,” Tsuna says quietly after he rinses his mouth and takes a few small and cautious sips of water. He keeps his eyes closed and there’s a sheen of sweat on his forehead. He looks like utter shit.

“Damn right you did! Don’t fucking do that again!” That… isn’t what he really wanted to say, but Tsuna seems to understand the deeper meaning behind those words because he’s smiling. It’s weak and frail, but it’s there.

“I won’t. I feel better now. Just moved wrong and wasn’t expecting… that.”

His breathing doesn’t sound any better than before, but it doesn’t sound remarkably worse either, so Mochida lets it be.

He glances towards the door. Someone might pop in any second and it feels unbearably vulnerable to have it defenceless like that. So he grabs one of the metal chairs and shoves it under the handle. It’s not much, but maybe it’ll hold them back a few seconds and the noise will definitely alert them in time.

“So now what? You obviously can’t keep going like this.”

Tsuna acknowledges that with a faint hum. He blinks blearily as he looks around the room and the lighting must be really weird here because for a moment Mochida thinks his eyes are glowing gold.

“Good idea with the chair, senpai.” He slowly pulls himself closer to the desk and away from the puddle of sick on the floor, opens the first drawer in the desk, going through a mishmash of papers and random trinkets. He nods towards the chest of drawers. “Could you check what’s in there?”

“Sure.” The first drawer he opens is empty so he pushes it closed again. “Am I looking for anything specific?”

“Weapons, phones, information. Ah, my ring if you can find it. Do you remember what it looked like?”

“Yeah, the big one with the chain, right? Pretty distinctive.” The second one is filled with snacks, probably to go with all the alcohol.

Tsuna huffs unhappily. “It is, isn’t it? I’m surprised they didn’t know it.”

The final drawer is filled with papers and he goes through them one by one. Mostly they’re bills and receipts for different supplies and food and he even comes across something that looks suspiciously like a receipt for buying bullets. Lots of bullets. All of those go in one pile. All the papers he either thinks might be important or just doesn’t understand, he puts in a second pile.

“Was it true, though?”

“What was?”

“The guy disintegrating from the inside?”

“Oh.” Tsuna snickers quietly. “Yeah, I might’ve exaggerated a little. I mean, it still wasn’t very nice. Pretty sure Xanxus still has the scars from that, but he’s tough so he’s fine. I just needed to make sure Stefan wouldn’t want to carry the ring around. I mean, I already screwed up the mission, got captured, _and_ lost my glove. Reborn’s going to murder me for that. I don’t need him torturing me for losing the ring.”

“That Reborn guy was your tutor, right? He’s not _actually_ going to kill you, right?”

“Ehhh, it’s Reborn. He believes that a fight to life and death a day is called ‘light exercise’. Last time I screwed up he made me climb the outer wall of a fifty floor building with my bare hands and no support while wearing nothing but my boxers. And if I failed to reach the roof in five minutes, he would start shooting rubber bullets at me.”

“Heh, that’s funny.” Who knew Dame-Tsuna could make jokes like that.

“Yeah, Reborn thought the same,” Tsuna says miserably. “But rubber bullets still hurt a lot.”

He whips around so fast his neck cracks a little.

It… was a joke. Right?

Tsuna is frowning, most of his attention on a small locked metal box. There’s a bunch of keys on the desk next to it and he’s trying them out one by one.

“Holy shit,” Mochida says. It’s just a trick of light, isn’t it?

“Senpai? What’s wrong?” His eyes are narrowed and he shifts to the edge of the chair, ready to fight. It’s definitely not a trick of light. Tsuna’s eyes are a glowing gold, eerie and yet still somehow warm in the dim light.

“Holy fucking shit,” Mochida repeats. “Your eyes. They’re _glowing_.”

“They are?” Tsuna looks confused as he runs a hand through his hair for some reason. “Huh, I had no idea… Still no flames, though. Anyway, don’t worry about it, senpai. It’s not a big deal.” He pauses and glares at the bracelet around his wrist, tugging at it. “I think.”

Mochida’s eyes trail to his own bracelet. The cold feeling in his arm has faded and now it feels like nothing more than just a bracelet, though it doesn’t come over his wrist and he can’t find a seam where the two ends must be joined.

“Are you sure? Glowing eyes look kinda… not healthy.”

“Yeah, it just means that at least _something_ works, even if it doesn’t feel like it.” The box clicks open. “Ooh, is this your phone, senpai? Can you turn it on? Maybe we can call for backup.”

Mochida catches the smartphone Tsuna tosses to him easily. The screen is dark, but the phone turns on just fine and all the codes still work. There’s even plenty of battery left, but…

He stalks over to the only tiny window under the ceiling, rising the phone high above his head. This window is barred as well.

“There’s no reception. Can’t even call emergency.”

“Damn, I didn’t think we were that deep underground that the signal wouldn’t reach. Ah, well, I guess I never really hoped for such an easy way out anyway. Here, I think this is yours.” He slides a familiar wallet over the desk. “Stefan probably still has your health insurance card, though, so I’m not sure if you’ll ever see that again,” he adds apologetically.

Mochida shrugs. He doesn’t really care. He’ll just get a new one once they get out of here. And maybe he’ll move out of his tiny shitty apartment to change his address too. He’s been planning to do that for a while anyway so it’s not a big deal. It’s more surprising to see all his other cards and even cash is still in there. The weight of the wallet and the phone in his pocket is oddly comforting, like there was something missing this whole time and he didn’t even realise it.

A metallic sound gets his attention. Tsuna is just about to slip the large two-piece ring on his fingers.

“Wait!” Tsuna stops and watches him expectantly with his golden eyes. Mochida can’t decide if they’re creepy or comforting. Both at the same time, maybe. “You absolutely sure the ring won’t do anything to you?”

Tsuna laughs quietly, but it sounds a bit bitter.

“Right now I am probably the only person in the entire world who can use it. I’d have to screw up way worse than this for it to reject me. Besides, I can’t leave Natsu behind, can I?” he says and slips the ring on without hesitating.

As soon as he does, the room fills with bright orange light and Mochida has to cover his eyes. It feels so safe and comforting and until it fades away, it doesn’t occur to him that it might mean that Tsuna is dead this time.

What he sees instead of a disfigured corpse, is Tsuna blinking owlishly at a small orange creature in the middle of the desk.

It’s on fire.

“Gao,” it says.

“Eh? Nats-? Aah, senpai, don’t-!”

Tsuna grabs the creature into his lap before Mochida can punch it. The desk shakes from the force of the punch.

“It’s okay, senpai! Natsu won’t hurt- Ah, shit.” He coughs heavily into his hand and the thing makes an upset sound at Mochida before nuzzling under Tsuna’s chin in an attempt to… comfort?

That’s the only reason Mochida isn’t attacking right away. Well, that, and the fact that he does not want to go close to any burning creature, even if the fire doesn’t seem to hurt Tsuna.

“I’m okay, Natsu,” he whispers when the couching fit has passed. The thing bumps its head against Tsuna’s chin once more and climbs into his lap. “Um. Anyway, senpai, meet Natsu. He’s my partner, sort of, so I swear he’s not going to hurt either of us.”

“It’s trying to eat your hand.”

“Eh? Uwaaah, I’m so sorry, Natsu! You know I didn’t mean to let this happen!”

He removes the thing from his hand and lifts it on the desk. They stare at each other for a long moment, but when Tsuna lifts his hand, the thing lets him scratch it behind its ear. Soon it’s molten into a puddle of orange flames and fur, purring quietly.

“He’s just mad at me,” Tsuna explains quietly. “No one has ever managed to take my ring before, so he’s upset about it.”

“What the fuck is it? A cat?”

“He’s actually more like a lion, but you can treat him as a cat, I suppose. He doesn’t really mind. He’s a bit like Marco’s rat, but also entirely different. Definitely more sentient and useful. Oh, actually, Natsu, do you think you can bust us out?” He points towards the window with his thumb, but Natsu just flops down with a long whine. “Yeah, didn’t think so. Speaking of which, what are you doing here? I could’ve sworn I didn’t have the flames to call you out. And where’s your armour?” It- He? playfully tries to bite his fingers again, but Tsuna just laughs. “Well, I’m glad you’re okay at least.”

The whole scene looks like nothing more than a person playing with a cat. Except the cat is on fire.

“Why is it on fire?”

“That… takes a longer time to explain. And they’re flames, but not actual fire so it won’t burn if you touch him. Er, senpai? Maybe… maybe you should sit down for a moment? You’re looking rather pale.”

Mochida takes his advice to heart, sinks down on the closest chair and buries his face into his hands.

He just could’ve gotten killed if Tsuna hadn’t covered for him and they’ve been kidnapped and there are different burning animals and somehow everyone around him treats that like it’s normal. Is he the only one who didn’t get the memo? ‘ _Hey, from now on flaming animals are a perfectly normal occurrence so don’t freak out_!’ Maybe he’s dreaming? Though, Stefan’s punch did feel awfully real and he can still feel the sting on his cheek. There’ll probably be a bruise later. Ahhh, he just wants to go home.

“Senpai?” Tsuna’s voice suddenly sounds much closer. “Sorry, I couldn’t find more water and I already drank from here so I don’t know if you… Ah, but you probably should-”

Mochida cuts him off by just taking the bottle Tsuna’s offering and downing half of the water in there. The cool water soothes his parched throat and damn, he never realised water could taste this good. Screw all those sports drinks. Water’s the best. Ever.

“Would it help if I told you to treat all of this like magic? I mean, it’s not magic, like not even close, but just… think that it is?”

“Yeah. Magic,” he says weakly. Nothing makes sense. So must be magic. “Sure. Makes sense. Magic.” He really feels like crying again.

“I’ll have someone explain things to you later if you want,” Tsuna says, compassionately patting Mochida on the shoulder. “We can’t stay here for long. Take a break while I look over those papers you found, okay?”

Mochida nods carefully. Tsuna looks him over attentively. He can’t read his expression, but eventually Tsuna stalks back to the papers on the ground, the small lion trotting after him.

Somehow he’s moving better than before and only takes a few seconds to gather himself before going through the task of kneeling on the ground. It must hurt a lot, but he doesn’t complain once and Mochida quietly wonders how.

He quickly shifts through the two piles Mochida has already formed and more or less leaves them be, though some from the ‘keep’ pile gets thrown into the ‘discard’ pile.

“Some of those were in some European language,” he says as he remembers. “I don’t know, it wasn’t English so I couldn’t tell.”

Tsuna hums absently. “Yeah, Italian.”

“You can read those?”

“A little. Though, this stuff is too high-tech for me.  It’d go over my head even if it was in Japanese.”

His expression darkens marginally when he picks up another paper and Mochida refrains from asking further.

Eventually he forms three piles of papers. The largest is dropped back into the drawer, the little lion hides the middle one under the desk, and Tsuna picks up the third one, only consisting of a few sheets, and brings it to Mochida.

“We need to get these to the others as soon as possible. Um, could you… I mean, they don’t fit in my pocket and I don’t think I can carry them as I am so if you could, then that would be great. It’s… it’s an instruction manual for the bracelets,” Tsuna says, shifting on his feet, the little lion hiding behind his back.

Mochida refuses to look at the papers before folding them and shoving them into an inside pocket of his coat. If Tsuna doesn’t want to tell, he won’t ask. It’s not his business.

“Ready to go, senpai?”

“You sure it won’t be better to stay here?” Even if the door is flimsy, it still feels a lot safer than going outside. Maybe they could build a better barricade if they worked together.

“Unfortunately, yes. They can still track me, so hiding won’t do much good and I don’t want to be trapped here once they find out we’ve escaped.”

Mochida sighs in defeat. Whatever. Magic is real. Might as well just go get killed. But Tsuna looks really worried so he forces a smile.

Tsuna hesitates for a long moment before giving in. “Okay, good. Ah, right, you don’t have anything to fight with if it comes to that.” He looks around the room. “Hey, senpai? Can you fight with a _bō_?”

“I have trained with one before. Why?” He follows Tsuna’s gaze. “Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“Might be a little heavy. And uncomfortable.”

“Might be. But you know what they say – desperate times…”

“…Desperate measures. Right…”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * The building Tsuna had to climb was Allianz Tower in Milan, which according to Wikipedia is the highest building in Italy by roof height.  
> * A bō (棒: ぼう) is a long staff weapon used in Japanese martial arts, in particular bōjutsu.
> 
> You guys didn’t think I’d leave Natsu out of this, did you? (I spent three hours looking at pictures of cat armour instead of editing.)
> 
> Basically what happened is that the pain was so bad that Tsuna used his dying will to be silent, which triggered hyper mode. Or something akin to hyper mode, anyway. But hmm… the bracelet doesn’t seem to be breaking yet. And dammit Tsuna, stop moving around! You’re making it worse! (The cool thing about Mochida not knowing what to do about Tsuna is that I don’t need to know either. Less research for me ayyy! No, but really, editing this chapter was somehow actual torture. Maybe I should find a beta after all...)
> 
> And omg I love Chrome with a burning passion! And pissed off Chrome is fucking scary. Which is why the base was ‘swarming’ with Vongola troops. But why is Mukuro not in this fic, you ask? Well, I imagine Mukuro wouldn’t be too involved with Vongola business. He’d be something like an occasional ally, someone who shows up from time to time to mess with the other Guardians just because he thinks it’s funny. (Tsuna does not think it’s funny.) Maybe he’ll make an appearance later on but I honestly doubt that. So far I haven’t planned anything for him.
> 
> I worked in a local fast food restaurant some years ago. They kept the money safe with daily earnings in a drawer under the register. Sometimes the entire week’s earnings were there because they didn’t empty it regularly. The key for the safe was in the same drawer. Idk, it seemed pretty stupid to me but hey, what do I know? I’m just Kat, the dumbass.
> 
> Anyway, thank you for all the support! You’re all wonderful and I love you so much! If you want, you can come and yell at me in [Tumblr](http://thabluesheep.tumblr.com/) or [Twitter](https://twitter.com/ThaBlueSheep)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There’s not a single problem that can’t be solved with alcohol and fire.
> 
> Warnings: Fire. Explosions. Водка. Villains on stand-by while character does motivational speech.

Tsuna has a large bottle of vodka tucked under his arm as they make it down the hallway. The little lion is perched on his good shoulder.

Mochida doesn’t know where he got the glove he’s wearing on his right hand. All he knows is that one moment Tsuna was fiddling with his single woollen mitten and the next he saw him, he was sighing dejectedly at a black leather glove cladded in shiny silver metal, the ring somehow sitting perfectly over the leather. It looks like it’s made for fighting. Mochida doesn’t want to ask.

He also doesn’t want to ask about the vodka. He is having enough trouble carrying the floor lamp he took as a temporary weapon without making noise. It’s heavy and uncomfortable just as he said it would be, but it also gives him a vague sense of security. He’s not awful at fighting barehanded, but he’s never been exceptionally good at it either. He’s always worked better with weapons. So in case someone attacks now he feels like he would at least stand a slight chance against them–

No, actually, fuck it. Tsuna’s lost his goddamn mind if he thinks Mochida can fight with a floor lamp. The thing is so awfully off balance it’s not even remotely funny. But they’re already halfway up the stairs and it’s too late to turn back.

Tsuna stops abruptly and urges Mochida to check his phone. There’s still no signal.

“We’re definitely above ground by now. If you can’t even call emergency then something must be jamming the signal,” Tsuna explains with a barely audible whisper. He glances up the stairs. “You don’t happen to know what’s up there, do you?”

“No, I was blindfolded when they brought us in.”

“Yeah, thought so. Stay here, I’ll go see. Look after senpai, will you, Natsu? I’ll be right back.” He pushes the lion into his hands without waiting for an answer and Mochida almost shrieks because holy fuck! He’s touching fire! Which… isn’t hot at all? It’s kind of warm and soft like that orange light before.

The lion is struggling against his hold so he sets him down quickly, half expecting him to run off after Tsuna, but he just takes a few steps away and sits down as majestically as a miniature burning lion can, his tail swishing through the air as he guards the hallway they just came from.

Tsuna said to treat him like a cat, didn’t he? Well, he’s been feeding the cats at the dojo for years. He just sits down on the stairs, mostly ignoring him, but still generally acknowledging him. That always works with cats.

“Natsu, was it?” he says after a while. The lion ignores him, but Mochida persists. “Is your life always this crazy?”

Natsu huffs and keeps staring down the hallway. It’s empty and he can’t hear anything. But what if someone comes down the other set of stairs? And he’s still wary of Marco. Now that he thinks about it, he didn’t think to pull out the staples. What if Marco manages to escape the same way they did? Would he be able to fight him without Tsuna? Would _Tsuna_ be able to fight him again?

“Gao,” Natsu suddenly says quietly and sits closer to him. He supposes that the ‘gao’ is a growl of some sort, but it’s the fakest lion’s roar he’s ever heard. Like a child trying to imitate a lion. Nevertheless, Mochida hesitates, but tries scratching him behind the ear like he saw Tsuna do. He’s ready to pull his hand away the moment it starts burning, but Natsu is just warm, and the silky flames of his mane tickle him as they gently cradle his fingers. It’s the weirdest feeling ever. Like petting living fire.

He doesn’t hear Tsuna before he’s right behind them and speaks up. “Oh, you’ve made friends with Natsu. That’s rare. He’s usually such a coward.”

He looks a bit winded, but that’s how he’s looked the whole night, so it probably means nothing.

“The only exit is blocked. There’s four of them. I think everyone else is busy somewhere else. Though, we still won’t get out without a fight.” He motions for the phone and quickly types in a number when Mochida hands it to him. “I think you need to get outside before calling for help and once you do, try calling this number as soon as possible. I don’t know if you remember him from middle school, but it’s Gokudera Hayato’s private number. Just tell him your location and what’s going on and he’ll come and help.”

“Wait. What are you planning?” Why is Tsuna not including himself?

“I’ll clear up a path for you and give you cover as long as I can. You just need to run fast and run far. Meet up with Gokudera-kun and give him the papers as soon as possible.” He goes through his pocket quickly and hands him Marco’s box and ring. “These too. He’ll know what to do.”

Oh, so that’s why. Well, he kind of expected this from an idiot. He did the exact same thing before, after all.

He pushes them back to Tsuna with a resolute, “No.”

“Eh? Ah, right, there’s no need to worry. The box won’t open unless you inject it with Storm flames-”

“No, you fucking idiot,” Mochida interrupts before Tsuna tells him something that he definitely does not want to know. Not now. “I mean that I’m not going to give these to anyone. You are.” He gives the phone back to Tsuna too. “And I’ll need two hands to fight with a fucking lamp, in case you didn’t think about that. You only have one glove and your other arm is injured anyway, so you take the phone.”

Tsuna shakes his head. “ _Listen_ , senpai. As far as I understood, they can only track active flames. They can only track _me._ So as long as you’re not with me, you’ll be perfectly safe.”

“No. _You_ listen to _me._ I know what I saw. You’re trying to act all tough, but you’re hurt. Bad. You can hardly fucking _breathe._ If I leave you here alone, you’ll die.”

Tsuna hesitates. “They… probably won’t kill me. I’m more valuable to them alive for now. And I’m not sure how much longer I can keep this up anyway. You’ll be faster-”

“Goddamn, that’s why you’re Dame-Tsuna!” Mochida cuts him off sharply. Tsuna freezes, his expression turning careful and eyes a bit glazed. Right. Despite everything, Tsuna’s still a wimp. He needs to be _gentle_ , but goddamn, he’s pissed and he just needs to make this fucking idiot to _understand_.

He does take a deep breath before continuing.

“You always gave up before you even tried. When we had that fight, back in middle school, you ran away at first, didn’t you? But then, for some reason, you came back and you fucking decked me without even breaking a sweat. I could respect that, though it took months for my hair to grow back. After that I thought that you finally pulled yourself together and started putting effort in what you’re doing.

“But you still kept failing classes and never fighting back to bullies. You had enough potential to win in an unfair fight against me, but didn’t use any of it. You just… kept on giving up. I didn’t understand that. I still don’t.

“But look at me right now. In the past few hours I’ve been kidnapped, imprisoned, beaten, and seen you almost being _eaten alive_. I tied up a big bad guy with rats in his pockets and petted a fucking burning lion. And have I given up? No. Because when you promised that you would get us out of here, I remembered that potential you had in middle school. I thought I could trust you. I _do_ trust you. So get your shit together and get _us_ out of here.”

Tsuna leans against the wall and closes his eyes. He shudders slightly like he’s cold and Natsu climbs back on his shoulder, looking miserable as he licks Tsuna’s cheek. He’s still so pale and now there’s a visible bruise forming on his neck where Stefan grabbed him. And when he speaks, his voice is quiet and rough.

“It was a very… confusing time in my life. I’m sorry. I never meant it to go so far, but I didn’t have any control over my flames back then and I was just so… tired and _frustrated_ of always being…” He trails off uncertainly. Then he shakes his head briefly before bowing it, his body not following. It must hurt a lot. “Anyway, it still doesn’t excuse my actions, so I apologise for what I did. I mean, you were being a jerk, but I was a jerk too.”

“Oh relax, will you? I tried to cheat, so I had that coming. And my hair grew back just fine in the end. I should apologise to you. I only wanted to use you as a stepping stone to get to Kyoko.”

Tsuna laughs quietly. “Kyoko-chan deserves the apology the most, I think. She got the worst of it.”

“Oh, shit. I never did that. Did you?”

“Aah, now that I think about it, I don’t think so. She kind of just… let it go, so I forgot.”

“Well, we both have a dogeza in order then,” Mochida says lightly. “Listen up, dipshit. You’re not alone and I won’t allow you to just abandon me. We are going to fight together. That’s why I have this lamp, right?”

Tsuna smiles faintly as he runs a gloved hand through his hair. “Actually, you just seemed pretty upset about the situation, so I thought that having something to call a weapon might help you calm down a little. Didn’t think you’d actually go along with it, much less be willing to fight.”

“Well, you were wrong,” Mochida says with fake cheer. He doesn’t _want_ to fight. Not against guns and definitely not against weird magic. But Tsuna’s kept him alive and relatively sane so far and he won’t let the idiot die without returning the favour.  “There’s just four of them, right? And I know you can fight. And you have this little voodoo magic lion thing. I have my stupid floor lamp and seventeen years of kendo practise. Those guys don’t stand a chance.”

He sighs. “Okay. Fine,” he says eventually. He sounds a bit pissed, but mostly just resigned. “But stay close and let me do most of the fighting. Don’t force yourself beyond what you can do, senpai.”

“Says the one who’s on his feet out of sheer stubbornness.”

“No, I mean I’m… _really_ not in any shape to carry you. If you go down, we’re both down. I’m honestly counting on you to drag me out by the end of it.”

Mochida shrugs. He does have a point there. “You have a plan?”

Tsuna grins and picks up the bottle of vodka. “No, but I do have a starting point. Don’t worry, we’ll both get out of here”

He goes up a few steps, then stills and leans his forehead against the cold concrete wall with a soft groan.

“As soon as the ground stops moving.”

-x-

“Will this even work?” Mochida whispers dubiously when Tsuna pours a hefty amount of vodka over some gauze he’d apparently taken from Marco’s pouch. No wonder his pockets were too full to carry those papers.

“No idea, but Gokudera-kun would absolutely love this.”

Mochida has seen enough movies to know exactly where this is heading the moment Tsuna digs out a lighter from his pocket.

He peeks out from behind the large shipping container at the four seated in front of the only usable entrance. All the rest are blocked with the same kind of containers. There are some wooden crates as well, spilled around the warehouse. They’re piled up haphazardly like someone had started to clean the place up, but didn’t get too far with it. There’s a hole in the floor at the far end of the large room – apparently the other staircase leads up here as well.

The four are passing around a bottle of some kind of alcohol and talking too quietly for him to hear, but it looks like they’re arguing over something. He recognises Sword Lady, Scar, and Red but he hasn’t seen the third man before. Maybe it’s the sniper from the roof? Sword Lady has her sword and he knows Scar and Red both use guns. If the third one is the sniper then maybe he uses a gun too?

Well, whatever it is, he’s about to fight them with a floor lamp.

He stops Tsuna before he can stuff the soaked gauze into the mouth of the bottle and takes it from him. Tsuna tilts his head in confusion, but Mochida ignores it and takes a big gulp straight out of the bottle. Vodka burns nicely as it goes down and yep, that’s definitely the second best drink right after water.

“For forgetting this night ever happened,” he whispers.

Tsuna snickers quietly when he gets it back, giving the bottle a contemplative look. He takes a tentative sip as well and even braves it out and forces it down, but makes a face at the taste.

“For getting back home,” he answers. Mochida accepts that with a shrug. Works well enough, he supposes.

Tsuna shoves the gauze down the neck of the bottle and turns it upside down to make sure it doesn’t leak, then pats Natsu on the head.

“I know you’re scared, but we need to get out of here. Just be careful, little voodoo magic lion thing.” Natsu makes a quiet purring noise and takes off, sneaking behind the crates. People must really be blind to not notice a cheery little campfire sneaking around. “You too, senpai. _Please_ pull back if it gets bad.”

“Whatever.”

Tsuna sighs, but flicks on the lighter. He lets it die out hesitantly without lighting the fabric. “Um. Also, please don’t tell anyone what I’m about to do. My friends are destructive enough. I don’t need them to think that this is acceptable behaviour.”

Mochida shrugs. He doesn’t really care.

Tsuna lights the gauze, giving it time to fully catch fire before aiming it at their feet. It should provide enough distraction and chaos to give them time to attack.

Mochida tightens his grip on the cold steel of the floor lamp, watching as Tsuna finally launches the bottle. It flies through the air in almost slow-motion–

–and doesn’t hit its target.

The bottle meets the ground a little more than halfway to the target with a loud crash, fire flaring up immediately. Glass shrapnel scatter around, not damaging anything other than the concrete floor.

Tsuna takes a moment to cover his face with an ungloved hand and sigh wearily.

Yeah.

Mochida should’ve thrown it himself.

The four still shout in surprise at the fire, mild panic marring their illuminated faces as they arm themselves swiftly. Scar and Red have their guns, the third slips a pair of brass knuckles over his fingers. Sword Lady already has her long and narrow blade unsheathed and the ornamented guard glints ominously in the orange light of the fire.

Tsuna shoves two ungloved fingers in his mouth and blows. The piercing sound of the shrill whistle eats through his ears and goes straight into his brain. His nose itches and eyes water and Mochida can’t even move enough to cover his ears. It’s so loud that his body completely shuts down for a moment.

From the looks of it, the enemy is affected by it as well.

Natsu appears from behind them and jumps into Sword Lady’s face with a roar, giving her no time to react. Tsuna bolts out and he’s completely silent as he approaches the group with a speed Mochida can hardly follow.

Red is busy trying to free Sword Lady from Natsu when Tsuna steals his gun with a swift flick of his wrist. He ducks under the incoming fist, grabs his right arm and twists it behind Red’s back just as a gunshot echoes through the warehouse. Red yowls in pain and tries to clutch his right thigh with his free left hand, but Tsuna keeps him standing to act as a human shield.

“Shit, sorry!” Scar yells, trying to aim at Tsuna. Brass approaches from left and Tsuna does… _something_ with his wrist and arm that sends Red crashing into Brass and the two of them end up in a messy dogpile on the ground.

Another two gunshots sound almost simultaneously and then everything stills.

“You… are not a very good shot, are you?” Scar drawls.

“Neither are you,” Tsuna retorts with chilling calm.

He draws back his hand with a quick movement and _throws_ the gun. Scar yelps and ducks just before the cold hard metal hits his face. Tsuna dashes forward and kicks the gun out of his hand before he can straighten up. With a move similar to what he did to Marco, he knocks him out with a precise hit to the back of his neck. Scar goes down hard. Tsuna staggers, clutching his side, his teeth grit together tightly.

Brass unceremoniously pushes Red off into a moaning heap on the ground, but Tsuna still doesn’t move. He _can’t_ move judging by his pale face and unstable breathing.

“Senpai!” he calls out, breathless and weak, but Mochida knows his cue already. Guns are out, it’s finally his turn to move.

He darts out from behind the container and makes it to Tsuna just in time to block Brass’ fist from meeting his face. The flimsy metal bends and deforms under the blow, jarring his hands, but nothing breaks.

He stands between Tsuna and Brass and blocks another blow from below this time. Then he shifts his stance to take the third one coming towards his left side.

A loud crash from somewhere distracts him long enough that Brass’ hit connects under a bad angle, sending him stumbling backwards. Tsuna catches him with a low grunt, saving him from falling to the ground.

“Don’t think for a _second_ that your shitty little toy is enough to take me down,” Sword Lady seethes, pushing hair back over her shoulder and out of her bleeding face.

“Natsu,” Tsuna hisses quietly. The little lion is slumped on the ground next to a metal shipping cart, struggling to get up. The flames of his mane flicker and sputter erratically for a startling moment before settling.

“You brats have really done it now,” she presses through her teeth. Brass grins as he adjusts his knuckles and takes a better stance.

Mochida nods towards Brass. “Can you take care of this guy by yourself, Tsuna?”

Tsuna frowns. “Yeah, but-”

“Good then. I’ll have my hands full with her.”

“Have your hands full?” Sword Lady interrupts before Tsuna can answer. “What exactly are you planning to do with that lamp, boy? Illuminate me to death?”

“Twenty seconds,” Tsuna suddenly whispers so softly that only Mochida can hear him. He nods curtly, immediately understanding what he’s implying.

Brass comes around with a roundhouse kick. Tsuna pushes Mochida towards Sword Lady and blocks the kick with an arm.

He doesn’t see how well Tsuna takes the hit or what he does next.

Twenty seconds is a very long time in a kendo match. He’s lost matches in less than five seconds.

Her weapon is unfamiliar and her style is odd, altering between slashing and stabbing. He’s exhausted, high on adrenaline, and fighting with a goddamn floor lamp. So he does what he can and dodges and parries and blocks.

His hands already hurt from balancing the weight of the lamp and taking Sword Lady’s hits after the first few seconds. She doesn’t give him a single chance to attack. But that’s okay, because this isn’t a kendo match. This is a fight to life and death. He doesn’t need to score points. He only needs to survive.

Sword Lady brings the sword down and Mochida somersaults out of the way. He immediately brings up the foot of the lamp and blocks another incoming thrust. It pierces the thin metal, but she draws the sword back before Mochida can twist it out of her hand.

“Fucking weasel,” she hisses. “Screw playing fair.”

Her sword glows faintly purple and Mochida swallows thickly, already knowing that he is now officially beyond screwed.

He can only stare as the sword grows larger and longer. He can’t move. There is nothing he can do against weird magic. The silver edge of the blade glints under the dying light of the Molotov with disturbing clarity. He _can’t move._

A little orange ball of fire hits her hard and she stumbles to the side. Natsu lands on his paws, growling lowly.

“Good job, Natsu,” Tsuna calls.

Brass is sprawled over Red on the ground. Neither of them is moving. And Tsuna stands in front of Sword Lady. He’s slouched over a little and his breathing is bad again, but he takes a steady fighting stance.

“I thought I’d save you for dessert, pipsqueak, but guess it can’t be helped,” she says with a condescending sneer, not paying any attention to Mochida anymore. “I’ll just have to kill you first.”

“Go ahead and try it then,” Tsuna says simply even as the purple light coats the blade again.

She brings the sword down in a wide arc. Tsuna doesn’t try to dodge. He brings up his gloved hand and catches the blade mid-air–

He yelps the moment the purple light touches his glove. A silent explosion of bright white light forms between them and they’re both sent stumbling backwards. Tsuna can’t keep his balance and he falls as Sword Lady barely stays on her feet.

“Wha-what did you just do?” he stammers from the ground, holding a hand over the middle of his chest and his breath hitches.

“Nothing…” She looks baffled as well, as she checks her sword. Her eyes trail over to Natsu, who’s trying to shield Tsuna with his tiny body, growling and trembling at the same time. “ _Leone di Cielo_. You really are a Sky. Fuck, you’re Decimo, aren’t you, brat?” She snorts. “Can’t believe we got Vongola Decimo to wear one of our bracelets without even trying. You’re dead, pipsqueak. Even if you’re strong enough to blow up an island, you’re-”

There’s a dull thud and Sword Lady’s eyes roll back. She collapses to the floor before she can finish the sentence.

“Never underestimate floor lamps, fucker,” Mochida says from behind her collapsed form. He even does a cool spin with the lamp. It loses balance mid-spin and clatters uselessly to the ground. He snaps his fingers instead. “Yeah, totally planned that.”

Tsuna gapes at the scene. Then he scrambles forward and quickly presses two fingers to the side of Sword Lady’s neck, just under the chin. He waits a few seconds and then sighs in relief.

“You can kill people like that, senpai.”

“You think I’m a complete idiot? You’re not the only one here who knows how to knock people out. I don’t want murder weighing on me.”

Tsuna gives an acknowledging hum and tiredly leans back on one hand, the other pressing against his side. He closes his eyes and stays still, just breathing deeply and deliberately. Natsu presses against his thigh, silently trying to console.

Nothing else moves, so Mochida thinks it’s safe to let him have the moment. He can’t even begin to imagine the agony Tsuna must be feeling.

In the meantime, he pulls the sword free from Sword Lady’s grasp and removes the sheath from her belt.

“You’re going to take her sword, senpai?” Tsuna asks without opening his eyes.

“It’s a nice sword and I still feel like she owes me for knocking me out. Why? You think I should leave her something in exchange? You think she might want my number? I’d totally go on a date with her even if she’s evil. I mean, she’s hot. Even when bleeding.”

“You’re high on adrenaline,” Tsuna mumbles faintly. “It’s a European sword, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, a rapier, I think.” He pulls it through the air a few times, noting the weight of the blade and how the sharp edge whistles quietly. He doesn’t know rapiers, but it feels good in his hand. “Not what I’m used to, but it’s sharp and pointy so it’s better than this stupid lamp.”

Tsuna’s mouth twitches and he suddenly looks disturbingly amused. “I honestly thought it suited you well, senpai. It was definitely very… enlightening to see you fight with a floor lamp. Makes me believe that humans really are capable of anything. Floor lamps are not a limiting factor and all that…”

“You know, a good punch to the face might just become _your_ limiting factor if you don’t shut your mouth.”

Tsuna laughs shortly as he tries to get up shakily. Mochida reaches out and helps him on his feet. He wobbles a bit, but is steady enough to walk.

They finally duck out of the warehouse and the first breath of free winter air feels crisp and pure.

-x-

“You shot me!”

“I _said_ I was sorry.”

“You can’t just shoot someone and fix it with a ‘sorry’, you dick!”

“Oh, quit your whining! It's not like a bullet to the thigh's gonna kill you. Just slap some spit on it and you'll be fine."

“Sorry, Vera. It kinda stings, though.”

“Should we go after them, Vera? These two idiots are down but you and I can still move.”

“No. Not yet anyway. Damn cat scratched my face and the asshole took my sword, but the pipsqueak is Vongola Decimo. A _Sky_.”

There’s a pause. Then someone snorts.

“Imagine Decimo being done in by a faulty device. That’s like… that’s like comedy gold.”

“Yeah, but you know, it’s kinda disappointing, too. Like poisoning the final boss and then just sitting behind a fucking boulder doing nothing while you wait for him to croak. And we skipped all the mini bosses…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I believe that none of you is stupid enough to do this but just in case: DO NOT TRY TO BUILD A MOLOTOV COCKTAIL AT HOME. IT IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS AND YOU MIGHT SERIOUSLY INJURE YOURSELF OR ANOTHER PERSON. AND I’M PRETTY SURE IT’S ALSO ILLEGAL? IT SOUNDS LIKE IT SHOULD BE ILLEGAL. I HOPE IT’S ILLEGAL. Though Tsuna’s still Tsuna and his athletic abilities are garbage unless he’s fighting.
> 
> For some reason (I wonder why) Tsuna taught himself to whistle very, very loud a while ago. (There might be some Sky flames mixed into the sound that have a short lasting petrifying effect on people.) Also, everyone who isn’t Reborn is a bad shot in Tsuna’s opinion.
> 
> This chapter was very hard to write. It didn’t help that I’ve recently been both sick and caught up in some depressive cycle. I… pretty much remember nothing that happened last week… But it seems that things are looking up again a bit.
> 
> I’m not noble enough to say that I would write this even if I didn’t get feedback, so please comment if you enjoyed this! I love hearing all your thoughts! I love you all and please do take care of yourselves!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Release the hounds, Tsuna.

The alley is cold and dark and Tsuna is honestly not sure how much longer he can go on. Each new step he takes sends a sharp, fresh bout of pain through his ribs, the broken bones sickeningly crating and grinding against each other under his skin. Or under whatever is left of his skin, anyway. Stefan did a thorough job and Tsuna’s rather glad he already lost his lunch. And that he’s wearing dark clothes.

He’s fought with injuries and broken bones before, but he’s always had others to help him. Like after that fight with Byakuran, Yamamoto pretty much carried him back to the hideout and Ryohei started healing him as soon as he had the flames to do so. All Tsuna had to do was rest to recover the flames he’d lost. And when Daemon shattered most of his bones, the Oath flames healed him so fast that Tsuna didn’t even fully acknowledge that he nearly died there.

And even the mess the stray bullet caused in August when it got past his flame barrier was ultimately taken care of by someone else. It hurt a lot so he doesn’t remember much of what happened after he got out of that warehouse, but he knows that Hibari was there. It wasn’t Hibari who got him home, though. He thinks that was Reborn.

But seriously, what is it with Mafioso and cold warehouses? Couldn’t they conduct their kidnappings and other heinous acts somewhere else? Like in nice warm cabins where they could offer the victims hot tea and fresh apple pie and discuss their problems calmly and without trying to kill anyone—

Tsuna cringes and stops that train of thought abruptly. He’s losing focus along with the blood that’s soaked through his shirt and hoodie and is now running down the side of his jeans and that’s… not good. At all.

He focuses on Mochida who is following him closely. He hasn’t said anything, but judging solely by the quick rhythm of his breathing, he’s not doing so well. He’s been extremely high-strung all night and it’s probably starting to take its toll. A little more and he might panic again and Tsuna’s not sure if he can do anything to calm him down this time.

Mochida was right before. It wouldn’t do for Tsuna to leave him alone to deal with all of this.

And Mochida’s loud footsteps remind Tsuna that he’s not alone.

“Gao.” Natsu nudges his cheek once and jumps off his shoulder.

Tsuna stops running and Mochida skids to a stop to avoid ramming into him. Tsuna takes a moment to appreciate not running. His lungs are definitely grateful for it.

“Natsu?”

Natsu keeps looking at him expectantly.

He nods. “Okay, go.”

Natsu takes off without looking back and disappears around the corner. He’s a bit slower than usual, which might have something to do with the stupid bracelet that keeps eating his flames. He’ll have to deal with it as soon as possible.

“Where is he going?”

Tsuna would shrug but his… _everything_ rebels against that.

“Not sure. Natsu’s senses are better than mine. Especially now.”

He should probably explain that more, but that would take time and energy he doesn’t have. They’re not far enough from the warehouse to make him feel comfortable, but it’s enough. He leans against the wall, ignoring the way his vision just completely disappears for a few seconds.

Instead he digs out Mochida’s phone from his pocket and texts his location to a familiar number. Then he types in the same number, a finger just hovering above the green call button, but not pressing down yet. He needs to wait until—

“I will have to bite you to death if you keep littering, little animal.”

Tsuna looks up at voice just as Hibari walks around the corner in all his wintery glory, complete with a long black coat and a purple scarf wrapped around his neck. He’s holding Natsu from the scruff of his neck with two fingers. Natsu has surrendered to his fate and is just hanging there like a misbehaved kitten.

Mochida sucks in a sharp breath, right hand touching the hilt of his stolen sword. Hibari notices the movement and his eyes narrow. There’s no doubt that if Mochida is stupid enough to attempt to draw the sword, Hibari will bite him to death.

Tsuna distracts them both before the situation can escalate any further. “Hibari-san! You wouldn’t believe how _genuinely glad_ I am to see you!”

Hibari huffs at the sight of him, largely just ignoring Mochida’s presence for now. He drops Natsu on Tsuna’s head and takes a step back, disdainfully looking down on him.

“The feeling is not mutual. Your crowd is insufferable. You owe me a fight for making me tolerate them.”

“Yes, I know. And I’m sorry, Hibari-san. It’s just… you know, it’s Namimori. I let my guard down.”

He stays quiet and still as Hibari looks him over from head to toe, obviously not liking what he sees.

“How unsightly,” he sneers.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I don’t look the best right now. More importantly, I heard you attacked these guys in their other bases. I didn’t know you even had that information.”

“I didn’t. I simply gave your crew a list of locations that might have a connection. A few of them did.”

“Well, anyway, thank you, Hibari-san. It helped a lot. I’ll be sure to make it up to you.” Hibari doesn’t answer so he nods towards the way they just came from. “Down the street, third warehouse to the right. There should be four near the entrance and one more tied up down in the basement. At least two of them can use flames. The woman’s a Cloud and the man named Marco is a Storm. He’s the one who should be tied up. Didn’t see anyone else.” He pauses. “There was a man who called himself Stefan before, but he left. Anyway, there’s like an office or something downstairs. There were some papers I couldn’t carry, so I had Natsu hide them under the desk. Nothing exceptional, but still good evidence.”

Hibari doesn’t move, only leans back on his heels, like waiting for something. Tsuna sighs quietly. Does he really look _that_ bad?

“It’s okay. Senpai’s here and I was just about to call Gokudera-kun. This bracelet somehow seals most my flames, but if it really comes to it, I can still at least protect myself.” He hesitates. “And… I couldn’t find my pills. I hope they just threw them out, but… I’ve got a bad feeling about that.”

Hibari finally nods. “Very well. If you fail to contact the delinquent, I will come and collect your corpse after I’m done.” He turns to Mochida. “Herbivore, I expect nothing of you.”

Mochida bristles, but his inherent fear of the Demon Prefect keeps him quiet. Tsuna just smiles. Hibari’s unconventional warmth isn’t easy to understand, but Tsuna’s starting to get the hang of it.

“Oh, Hibari-san, there’s one more thing I found out.” Tsuna keeps his smile innocent. “They know your reputation.”

It’s a common misconception that Hibari doesn’t smile a lot. Hibari actually smiles quite a lot. Especially when he’s about to murder someone. Which happens at least thrice a day, sometimes more during mealtimes or if someone has the misfortune to disturb his afternoon nap.

“Perfect,” he says with a smile that makes Mochida visibly shudder. Then he jumps up and scales the three-storey building with two long leaps, disappearing up onto the roof.

“Eh?” Mochida says smartly.

“He could’ve used the street like a normal person, that show-off.” Tsuna sighs and grimaces at the sharp pain it sends through his chest. “But it’s okay now, senpai. Hibari-san has our backs and you can trust him to do a good job.”

He finally clicks the green call button and rises the phone to his ear.

-x-

“Raise,” Gokudera says.

“You’re bluffing,” the woman sitting across from him accuses.

“Sure, if you think so.”

Her name is Mei and she’s the Hibari-approved drug dealer of Namimori. She’s not exactly an informant, but drug dealers hear many interesting stories, which makes her the only interesting person in the bar. It’s probably why Hibari sent him here because there’s nothing else suspicious that Gokudera noticed.

They’re sitting in the quietest corner of the bar and the amount of yen on the table is nothing to scoff at.

 “Yeah, nah, you’re totally bluffing,” she says and matches Gokudera’s bet with a grin.

Gokudera shrugs and they both turn their cards. Mei’s victorious grin for her full house turns into a scandalised yell when she sees his hand.

“Straight flush? Goddamn asshole.” She pokes the pile of yen regretfully before Gokudera swipes it up.

Idiot. Doesn’t even know how to cheat in poker. Speaking of which, he should totally teach Tenth how to cheat in poker next time they have a long flight.

He throws that idea out his head as soon as it gets there. Tenth is lethal in card games even without cheating.

“You’re definitely cheating.”

Gokudera snorts. “You just suck at this. Don’t be a sore loser and start talking.”

She sips at her beer, and sighs dejectedly. “Hey, I’m just your friendly neighbourhood drug dealer. I don’t know much.”

“Stop bullshitting. You lost the game. Start talking or I’ll shove a stick of dynamite up your ass. I’ve been told it’s not a pleasant feeling.”

“Sheesh, chill, kid. I’ll talk. I’m a woman of honour, after all. Or a drug dealer of honour, if that suits you more. And I appreciate my ass how it is, thank you very much. But first...” She leans closer, her voice turning into a whisper, barely heard over the music. “What do you know of ‘flames’?”

Gokudera keeps his expression neutral. “I know of them.”

She huffs in displeasure, leaning back again. “Of course you do. You probably know more of them than anyone else in this town, don’t you, Vongola?”

It’s not a question, so Gokudera doesn’t answer and lights a cigarette instead.

His phone vibrates in his pocket as it receives a new message, but he doesn’t react to that. It’s probably just Yamamoto, anyway. Chrome and Sasagawa would’ve contacted him through the transmitter and Hibari wouldn’t contact him at all. And Tenth’s phone is in his other pocket along with his headphones and the single mitten.

Yamamoto should be checking out a suspicious apartment and knowing the idiot, the text is probably something stupid and pointless like, ‘ _Haha, I drank all the milk in the fridge. Do you think I should pay for it?_ ’ or, ‘ _Whoops, I stumbled and fell head first down the stairs. I died._ ’ It’s not worth reacting to.

“Well, I guess at least there’s no need to talk around the topic then.” Mei finishes her beer in three big gulps and sets it on the table with a loud clank. “So these weird guys showed up from nowhere about two years ago. Probably from Italy, or so I’ve been told. They started from Osaka and went to Kyoto after that, and I heard they even stopped by Kobe for a while. I guess they finally got tired of the city life and decided to come enjoy the rural calm of Namimori. That’s when I started actually paying attention to the rumours. You know, I wouldn’t be too happy if these guys put me out of business.”

“Get to the point. I don’t have all night.”

“Patience is a virtue, young man. Anyway, they came to Namimori this summer and then children started disappearing. Mostly the kids who were neglected by their own parents or who already live on the streets. You know, the ones no one cares about. And before you say anything stupid, no, I don’t deal to the ones who abandon their kids to get high and you know it.”

Gokudera shrugs. It’s not something he cares about at the moment, but he knows Tenth only approves of the dealers who check their clients. It’s probably why she still has business in this town.

“So these kids disappear and then some of them show up again after a while, wearing this weird little silver bracelet and scared out of their minds. They avoid all authorities and live on the streets for a while, then some of them get caught by the police and some disappear again. And when they disappear the second time, there’s no coming back. Ever.”

Tenth had that bracelet too. No doubt that’s the reason for his disappearance.

“What do the bracelets do?”

She shrugs. “Officially I’ve got no clue. I’ve never had the chance to see one up close. But following the bits and pieces I’ve heard from different clients, it’s got something to do with flames. All I know for sure is that when a kid’s wearing it, it’s impossible to get off. Kinda like it’s using the wearer’s flames to reinforce the metal, making it almost indestructible. And I don’t know how valid this is because the guy was piss drunk, but he said that the only way to get the bracelet off is with a good dose of Sky flames.”

Gokudera takes the last drag from the cigarette and squishes it out on an ashtray. “Kids normally don’t have active flames. How do they use flames of a person who’s not active?”

“You tell me, Vongola. You’re the expert here.”

“Whatever. Why are they abducting children? Experiments?”

“I don’t think so. No one’s brave enough to try that after what happened to Estraneo. At least not like this. I think they’re building up for something. And for that they need flame active children. You gotta make your own conclusions from there.”

The phone in his pocket buzzes again, but it’s longer this time, more insistent and Gokudera wants to throw it against the wall. Too bad Vongola’s phones are too good to be broken that easily.

Goddamn baseball-idiot is _calling_. He should know the protocol about calling during missions. He’ll kill him after this is over. Except Tenth wouldn’t like that so he’ll just yell at the dumbass and hope that’ll finally get protocol through his thick skull.

“Shouldn’t you get that?” Mei nods towards his pocket. Damn bitch’s got good hearing.

Gokudera scowls at her, but gets his phone out. Great. Unknown number. If it’s any of those telemarketing fools trying to sell him a new mattress, he’ll personally sue their asses.

“What?” he barks into his phone.

“ _Hiiiee! Sorry! Are you very busy right now?_ ”

Gokudera blanches. He knows that voice from _anywhere_.

“Tenth! Where are you?! We’ve been looking for you all night!”

He mentally bashes his head against the wall as soon as those words leave his lips because Mei across the table looks ridiculously smug about that bit of free information.

“ _Ah, yeah, about that. I texted you my location. Do you think you could arrange me a pickup? Or if you’re busy… text me someone else’s number who could? I’m, er, not in the best condition to travel far right now_.”

Gokudera hisses quietly as the words register. “ _How badly are you hurt, Tenth?_ ” he asks in simple Italian and judging by Mei’s carefully neutral expression, she doesn’t know Italian.

“ _A few broken ribs, I think. It’s not too bad, but I’d rather not move,_ ” Tenth answers in Japanese which means he either doesn’t know the Italian words or is too tired to bother. The quiet wheeze in Tenth’s breath makes the bad feeling in the pit of his stomach tingle again. Tenth is definitely underselling his injuries, but there’s no way he can react to that without giving it away to Mei.

“ _Hold on a moment, please._ ” Gokudera tears the phone away from his ear and quickly opens the latest message, frowning when the map opens. It’s not too far and he has his bike, but… “ _Will you be safe there for another ten minutes?_ ”

“ _Yeah, I think so. Oh, Mochida-senpai is here, too, because— actually, that’s a long and complicated story. I’ll tell you later. But yeah, we’ll be fine._ ”

“ _Okay. Please,_ please _hang in there, Tenth. I’ll be there as soon as possible._ ”

“ _Gotcha. See you then. And please be careful!_ ”

The phone beeps as the call ends and he smiles briefly at his phone. Tenth always knows when he’s about to break the speed limit.

“What, you lost your boss, Vongola?”

Gokudera scowls at her, but pulls out the money he won before and throws it on the table. Mei pinches two fingers together and makes a move like zipping her mouth closed, scooping the bills into her bag with the other hand. But Gokudera is not done. He slams both hands against the hard wood, his voice quiet and threatening.

“I will call you. And you will tell me everything else you know. Give me your number. _Now_.”

Mei hums and leans daintily against her hand, not the least bit threatened. “You are definitely handsome, but honestly, I’m kinda playing for the other team. And you’re way too young for me, anyway.”

Gokudera growls, pulls out a stick of dynamite and shoves it under her nose.

“Okay, okay, fine.” She pushes the dynamite away and reaches into her bag, pulling out a simple black notebook. She scribbles something on one of the pages, tears it out and hands over. “Sheesh, one call from your boss and you’ve got your panties in a twist that badly? What is he? Dying?”

Gokudera bites back the sharp retort. The bitch is digging and Gokudera won’t let that get to him. He tears the paper out of her hand and turns on his heel to leave.

“Hey, Vongola!” Mei calls after him just loud enough for him to hear over the music. “Will your boss help the kids?”

He wants to snap at her for doubting Tenth, but as far as he knows, the woman has never met him. She wouldn’t know. It’s also his mission to spread awareness of what kind of boss Tenth is.

“Tenth is a kind man. He wouldn’t have it any other way.”

-x-

Getting out of the handcuffs hadn’t been easy, but he managed. Getting a spare ring from the tiny inside pocket of the medical pouch – good thing the brats didn’t notice that – and disintegrating the chest of drawers in Stefan’s office takes a minute at most. He doesn’t bother with the desk. The brat probably already has his ring back.

He ignores the sound of a fight upstairs as he grabs everything important from his lab and lets Storm flames take care of the rest. That takes a while, but as soon as the brat can contact his companions, Vongola will storm the place and the less evidence they find against them, the better.

Marco grins at his phone as he takes the spare entrance in the basement to flee the building. Vongola’s technology really is top-notch if even a Vongola himself didn’t bother taking his phone. But then again, a Vongola would know very well just how good the security is. Even destroying it would’ve been a stupid move because that would’ve sent an immediate distress signal to Stefan.

Something rattles in his pocket and he should really get it as far as possible from the warehouse, but the glowing dot on the tiny map on his phone is too alluring. Maybe he can teach the brat a lesson about kicking people in the crotch and tying them up before his allies show up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hibariiii… you technically only had to speak to Gokudera. There was no crowding.
> 
> And here’s a short and stupid story. I got more or less the same amount of English and Russian lessons in school. My Russian is Awful with a capital letter. Like, I can somewhat grasp the meaning of a simple conversation but can’t really speak it. (The other day a Russian lady asked for directions from me and I was just about to answer sorry, I don’t understand, but then I was like. No. I did understand what she said. I just don’t know how to answer. So I answered in Estonian. And she got me just fine. So yeah. All’s well that ends well.) As for English, well... I’m a tiny bit better with English. And even my Japanese studies went waaaaay better than Russian. WHAT I’M TRYING TO SAY HERE is that I have a headcanon that Tsuna didn’t have as much trouble learning Italian as he did with English and not even Reborn can really explain why. He’s not fluent, still stumbling over grammar and vocabulary and has an issue with his accent (and who the hell assigns genders to inanimate objects??), but he’s getting there slowly but surely.


End file.
